oh so were calling names now? just like i said hunting pressure but it still doesnt exclude the fact that deer do most of their moving and feeding at night and thats anywhere not just in your sacred alabama. and this is an information forum where people post their views and their oppinions and in this case facts. so if its an alabama thing i just wouldnt understand then you need to be on alabama hunting net .com. but since im just a yankee i must not be very smart. but it must be your hunting abilities cause from all the articles from your state it shows a problem with over population so ya might want to try a different strategy in the woods. heres just one of the articles proving my point but again im just a yankee what do i know?



Alabama is often considered a case study for what happens when there is an overabundance of wildlife. If not corrected, that overabundance may cause die-offs and diseases in wildlife like we've never before seen. When suburbia encroaches on wildlife habitat, the wildlife then has no place to go. The other problem occurs when you change the nature of the wildlife.

It's a problem that is repeated in many states around the country.

Let's look at some of the problems in Alabama and the potential solutions.

Oak Mountain State Park, a short drive south of Birminham, provides a classic example. The deer herd in this beautiful wilderness area surrounded by suburbia has gotten out of control. In a healthy deer herd, does have two fawns each spring, which doubles the herd.

Wilderness regions surrounded by metropolitan areas are like pastures surrounded by fences. The pasture has a limited ability to produce enough food for only a certain number of cattle inside the pasture. Perhaps a pasture can provide enough food for 50 healthy cows.

However, when you put 100 cows in a 50-cow pasture, they'll lose body weight, become highly susceptible to parasites and disease and get sick. If you put 200 cows in that same pasture, they'll either break the fence or starve to death.

Oak Mountain has a limited amount of food for deer, just like the pasture has a limited amount of food for cattle. The deer herd in Oak Mountain continues to grow unrestricted, because no natural predators control the growth of the herd.

Deer have detrimentally impacted the area around Oak Mountain. They eat flower beds, show up in backyards and collide with automobiles. If the deer herd at Oak Mountain doesn't get reduced drastically and quickly, hikers, campers, bike riders and visitors to the park can expect to see a massive die-off of the deer herd. You can't play with Mother Nature and win.

Nature must have the proper predator/prey balance. Every prey species needs a predator to keep its numbers in check and to prevent overpopulation, parasites and diseases.

Alabama deer once had numerous large predators to keep their numbers in check. Now the number of those predators has decreased greatly. Unless outdoorsmen take action to reduce the number of deer, in not only Oak Mountain State Park, but in many other state parks, the deer herd in those places will experience a die-off.

Alabama's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources doesn't need to wait to develop a plan only after we see hundreds and possibly thousands of the deer in our state parks die off.

Alabama also has a goose problem. Last week when I went to the grocery store, I saw a flock of 18 geese flying overhead. A few weeks ago, a sign at Inverness Parkway warned motorists to slow down because two young goslings already had gotten killed.

Geese aren't native to metropolitan Birmingham. Once again, we've removed most of the natural predators, and the resident goose population in our area has grown dramatically. The geese will eat up lawns and golf courses, defecate on beaches and fly into vehicles. They can become a major nuisance in the state. As far as I know, the state has no plan to remove a good portion of these geese before they become overpopulated and cause serious problems for suburbanites.

The people at P.E.T.A. and the other animal-rights organizations don't want hunters to remove these surplus animals. However, they haven't come up with the money or the plan to capture, move and relocate the surplus of these animals.

Therefore, the responsibility of controlling the overpopulation of deer in state parks and resident geese in metropolitan areas of Alabama falls squarely on the shoulders of the Department of Conservation.

You may not like the solutions the department eventually uses, but if this state agency doesn't act soon, you may have a deer on the hood of your car and geese crashing through the front of your windshield.