instead of Uggs, mukluk boots

[OakLeaf]

What Owlie and Irulan said. Don't forget that since we wiped out all the other large predators in most of North America, humans are the only predators of deer.

Not that the game laws in most of the US encourage responsible culling of the herd. And not that they *don't* encourage macho posturing. I think that unfortunately, among gun hunters at least, that's way more common than Owlie suggests. If the gun season weren't so short, IMO there wouldn't be such a hoorah of people - yeah, mostly men - taking off work to "get their deer," having not aimed a firearm for the other 50 weeks of the year ...


(And as far as food shopping in rural areas ... I'm very surprised that a town of 2,000 is too small to have a full-service grocery store within 100 km. I was thinking about towns with populations of 100 to 500.)

[shootingstar]

Oak --you forgot the bears in North America --deer predators. There's enough of them in various parts of North America.

It's great a lot more people are vegetarians --meaning for years. That's real commitment which like cycling ...just becomes part of daily life.
I've scaled down a lot from having meat nearly every dinner to several times a month ...now like this for past 15 years or so. It was more just eating less meat for health reasons and just saving costs.

[OakLeaf]

When someone sights ONE black bear in most of the USA, it's a major event. Something like 120,000 white-tailed deer are harvested each year in each STATE. I'd be surprised if black bears hunt deer - are you sure of that? They're not much bigger than deer ...

Grizzlies, like wolves and large cats, not only are rare in modern times, but inhabit only a very small range.

[Irulan]

Some people hunt every season - upland game, duck, deer, elk, moose - each has its own season. For the hunters I know, and I know a lot of them, it's an ongoing activity, not something reserved for those two weeks out of the year that the not-real hunters go apesh*t about hunting.

In the west at least, bears are not a significant predator of deer, although they are known to take fawns.Cougars, coyotes and wolves are the main predators. I understand this may be different in the central/north central N America, as compared to the western states/provinces.

And no, I"m not a hunter. Many of my clients and people in my social circle and larger community are.

[TrekDianna]

What Owlie and Irulan said. Don't forget that since we wiped out all the other large predators in most of North America, humans are the only predators of deer.

Oh, not here. We have a cougar who kills deer on our property about once a week and I see cougar killed deer on my running/hiking trails just as often.