I've read somewhere that there are now more deer in this country than there were when the first Europeans landed. Our modern emphasis on the production of corn is partly to blame. The deer themselves have evolved to survive almost anywhere, feasting on corn and garden crops in the country and plants and flowers in the suburbs.
Over the years, we've seen an occasional deer lying dead at the side of the Washington Beltway, a busy highway that sometimes widens to six lanes. I'd always assumed these run-over animals had somehow strayed from some large, wooded suburban tract.
Yesterday my husband and I travelled westward along the northern arc of the Beltway, between U.S. Route One and I-270, which links Washington, DC to I-70 at Frederick, MD. Very busy roads, all of them. To my surprise, I counted no fewer than 5 deer foraging in a narrow wooded strip between the Beltway and a high cement barrier running parallel to the Beltway, about 100 feet from the edge of the road. This strip, less than 5 miles long, lies between Maryland Route 29 (Colesville) and Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring. How can so many deer survive in such a tiny space?
Deer are everywhere. I think it's because their natural habitats are disappearing. I live on Long island. When my parents bought their house in 1968, our town was a rural community about to become a suburban community. The developer who built our house tore down acres and acres of woodlands to accommodate his project. All the deer who lived in those woods moved further east.
ReplyDeleteAnd as the suburban sprawl continued to move east, the deer moved further east...until eventually there was no place else for them to go. And then after Hurricane Sandy shook things up...
I've seen deer in front of my house more than once.
We have many deer around us. We have to be very careful driving and with the dogs most of the year. They disappear In the worst of winter,
ReplyDeleteIt kinda makes sense. It's like how we keep seeing coyotes in our parts. You wouldn't think there's enough wilderness for them, but they keep popping up.
ReplyDeleteWhere there's a blade of grass there's a herbivore to dispose of it.
ReplyDeleteWhere I live in upstate New York it's common to see deer in urban areas (not quite like the Beltway, but how about along one of our busiest roads?) Today we were driving to a doctor's appointment on this busy parkway, and saw a deer placidly grazing a few feet from the shoulder.
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