Unfortunately piecemeal debates don’t put all the facts together.
So, someone claimed in a recent issue that culls have never worked anywhere. But if s/he had looked at the B.C. government’s large study he’d have learned that a serious cull works for several years, but does require repeating (IIRC every 10 years). Unfortunately the B.C. government wimped on the subject, dumping it onto municipalities, and the CRD wimped too but now has bigger problems to worry about.
Of course Oak Bay’s planned independent cull won’t have much effect if neighbouring fiefdoms don’t participate, a point people have made in the Oak Bay News.
I still think governments should get some of those tribal people living near Admirals Road to periodically practice their ancestral culture they keep talking about – harvest some deer.
And yet another letter writer claims that deer are in urban areas because their habitat was eliminated by development. That’s nonsense, a short drive up the Malahat or west of Sooke, or a hike in Goldstream Park, would reveal plenty of habitat.
Deer are here because the food is tastier, they are tolerated, and there are fewer cougars.
Deer aren’t dumb in the short term sense to the limit of their knowledge, their agility and hooves can handle dogs but not cars. Some wildlife authorities are concerned about their diet – it is too easy, not natural.
But for the moment at least it seems to support ample reproduction, and the lack of cougars removes a natural limit on population.
Some wildlife authorities are very much against deer being in urban areas, because the food is not natural – it is too high in some nutrients.
I idly wonder if lack of predators like cougars degrades genetics, as they’ll more often catch the slow. Is that a type of cull? Well, maybe cars also kill more of the slow or unwise.
Keith Sketchley
Saanich