What is far more important than whether you believe the deer population is up or down is…. How is the deer population in relation to the habitat at this current time? It doesn’t really matter if we had twice as many deer back when the black belt was agriculture…etc…etc. What matters are the conditions now. What type of habitat is present and how much of that habitat is available? What type of condition is that habitat in? Is the deer herd currently in balance with that habitat? Many deer managers and biologists recommend keeping the deer herd at around 50% of carrying capacity in order to maintain a healthy deer herd that produces adequate yields as well as maintaining a healthy habitat.

One thing you have to consider when folks want to see lots and lots of deer is that the habitat pays a price for a supporting a high deer population. Property that is not managed to meet the needs of a large deer population can quickly become degraded and void of many key species that should normally be found. Even high quality habitat can be degraded if game populations are not kept in check. Look at the mess Pennsylvania has went through because deer populations got so high that forests were not able to properly regenerate. Now in many areas deer populations have been greatly reduced to try and allow the habitat to recover. Deer populations are driven by the habitat.

Coyotes moving into the southeast was probably a good thing for most of us. Before they really took hold, several areas of Alabama were verging on overpopulation issues. Looking back on it we were not managing the deer herd as we probably should have been because of lack of doe harvesting and coyotes moved in to fill that niche. Hunters and deer mangers must now learn to live with the coyote and adjust our doe harvests accordingly when needed.