So here’s a basic model of what I’m talking about with road mortality…….Let’s say you have one big plantation surrounded by lots of smaller properties that people are hunting varying from 5 acres to 25 acres to 250 to 2500…….. The larger subset area is defined by the major highways and interstate.

What I’m suggesting is that within this whole subset area you have a redistribution of doe groups that occurs when resources become limited in any given location. If the large plantation completely quits shooting does tomorrow, then when resources bottle neck in late winter and during fawning on the plantation….. social conflict will cause there to be an outward emigration of the subordinate doe groups onto the surrounding properties looking to fill in the gaps created by the does the surrounding hunter’s shoot……..This creates a doe “expansion” emanating from the plantation. Now lets assume that most everyone on the smaller properties are shooting does and holding their populations to well under capacity. ……Some clubs may shoot a lot of their does and create lots of openings…..You’ve probably all heard the guy who says that…. “we shoot does every year and they just seem to show right back up”……Those people likely have someone in the area who’s property is kicking out immigrants to them. I hope I’m using the immigrant/emigrant correctly. You get the point though.

In this scenario there are very few if any of our smaller properties creating any “expansion” themselves like the plantation because hunter harvest is preventing it……Road mortality would be fairly low because overall expansion is low…….Now lets change the variables in the model and let’s start having the smaller properties one by one stop shooting does as well……As the smaller properties stop having vacancies for the emigrating does to seek out…..the “turnover” for the area begins occurring more and more on the perimeter highways……Does that start trying to use both sides of a highway don’t last long……..this is where road mortality is creating the holes the subordinate females are seeking out…..it creates a much higher turnover around the edges than in the center……And you’re basically ending with the deer trying to push outwards a couple times a year and the road mortality eventually moderating the push and eventually the expansion settles out.

Of course this is not going to be as cut and dry as our model in all real world situations but there’s similar concepts playing out in most just depending on the setup.