More Deer Mean More Problems For Fragile Ecosystems In U.S.

A population boom by the American white-tailed deer is damaging ecosystems across the United States, some ecologists say.

The deer population has grown from 500,000 at the turn of the century to 20 million today.

The explosion of deer is blamed partly on suburban hunting bans and the disappearance of predators.

But the most dramatic influence is suburban development, which fragments woods and fields into ideal habitat for deer. Deer like to forage in young, recently disturbed forests.

Meanwhile, rare plants and animals and even entire forests are threatened as hordes of voracious deer plunder the food chain.

While animal-rights groups frequently present the issue of deer management as simply one of human inconvenience, some ecologists disagree.

For instance, University of Wisconsin botanist William Averson has studied old-growth forests in the state and found the dominant hemlocks and white cedars are not reproducing because deer gobble up seedlings.