I received one of those humorous e-mail messages the other day that caused me to wonder about the people who seem to have time on their hands to dream these tales up. This one had to do with a farmer who tried to rope a deer but was outsmarted at every turn. The e-mail arrived at about the same time I noticed a buck mule deer bounding east on the 7^th Avenue S. sidewalk in front of my house.

It seems incongruous to see deer in an urban setting. In fact, despite their growing numbers in Southern Alberta, people still seem to take notice when they see deer. For area wildlife biologists, they are a significant focus.

“Our biggest challenge right now is dealing with the increasing number of deer,” says Kim Morton, senior wildlife biologist for the prairies region centred in Lethbridge. Much of the increase is the result of relatively wet recent years. More generally, irrigation has helped raise the capacity for land in the south to carry more deer.

For game management, biologists also set social capacity goals related to concerns of landowners and the public. According to a study done for the Alberta Land and Wildlife Stewardship Working Group, landowners feel they bear the cost of producing wildlife and maintaining wildlife habitat as public goods, but get little or no recognition that wildlife can cause problems on their land.

As well, some see a negative in wildlife and public access to it they say interferes with agricultural operations.

Hunting and fishing enthusiasts fear access to land to pursue recreation opportunities will continue to decline and believe that landowners don’t appreciate the economic contribution of sportsmen, among other issues.

But from a strictly game management perspective, “Hunting is the only tool we have to control numbers in non-drought years,” says Morton. For hunters, the more deer, the more likely they’ll get one. But, a few days before the end of the deer hunting season, about 1/3 of the tags for Wildlife Management Unit 108 were unclaimed. That meant of a planned harvest of 604 antler-less deer, at least 200 would escape the cull.

To Morton, hunters have some responsibility to help out in keeping the numbers down. Could be, however, that a decline in numbers in the past 15 years helps explain the decreasing interest. The conflicting issues between landowners and hunters, along with an unpopular gun registry, may help further explain the decline in hunter numbers. Morton says, however, the number of hunters is showing signs of growth.

As for urban deer, it’s a case of making sure their numbers don’t reach nuisance or danger levels. Hunters can’t help with that, but working to maintain country habitat helps keep deer there.

Still, I get a sense of privilege when one visits the yard for a drink out of the backyard pond in winter. My wife Marlene has found a way to discourage them when they come in groups: wave a dishtowel at them to keep them moving down the block and away from the tulips and bergenias.

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