OT - Deer in Ann Arbor

Submitted by jmblue on

I've noticed quite a few deer near North Campus lately, especially around Huron Parkway.  (For some reason, they seem to really like the old Pfizer plant - I always see them when I drive by there.)  But I've never seen a deer with antlers.  Where are all the bucks?  I've seen some fawns, so there must be some bucks out there siring them, but they're never around.  Where do they go?  

Any sightings elsewhere around town?

Space Coyote

May 1st, 2011 at 9:12 PM ^

To reintroduce wolves, bears, cougars, and more importantly, wolverines.  Damn deer own the place, grazing like cattle all over the place.  I not only want to see live and in person what I see on Nat Geo, but it's good for the environment too.  

Bring back the natural preditors and keep and eye on your dog and your kid on a leash.  Geez.

Space Coyote

May 2nd, 2011 at 12:38 AM ^

Bears are in the norther LP and in the UP.  The wolves were gone from Michigan for a while and were not reintroduced, but rather returned on their own.  I believe they are also in Northern LP and the UP.  Eastern cougars that once were a common predator in the Appalachian Mountains were recently labeled extinct after long speculation that they had been.  There is a movement to reintroduce western cougars where eastern cougars once roamed in order to give animals such as deer natural predators.

We all know the story of wolverines to add to what I've said above.

The problem with these predators is that their populations are spread so thin because people don't want them where they live, so there is a lot of backlash against reintroduction or allowing them to spread.  What isn't understood is that our 3 weeks or whatever of deer hunting doesn't properly solve the natural cycle that nature has deemed necessary.  There needs to be predators, and there needs to be more, and not just humans.

DaJimmer

May 1st, 2011 at 10:40 PM ^

The deer on north campus are nuts. The day I moved in to baits 1 I decided to ride my bike down to central and was goin about 30 mph since its all down hill. In short, I came around a corner and ran right into a doe and crashed into the woods...she looked at me with the craziest look in her eyes probably sayin welcome to college freshy...damn, owned by a deer.

BlueDragon

May 2nd, 2011 at 1:20 AM ^

I was driving around a random neighborhood in the city and I saw a group of four deer on some guy's freshly mowed lawn.  They were grazing like, I don't know, cows in a pasture.  I stopped and we watched each other for a moment, then I left.