page_title: Deer
section_title: Economic significance
hierarchical_section_title: Deer / Human interaction / Economic significance
context_page_description: The common name deer has the hoofed ruminant mammal forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk, the fallow deer, and the chital; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer, the roe deer, and the moose. Female reindeer, and male deer of all species except the Chinese water deer, grow and shed new antlers each year. In this they differ from permanently horned antelope, which are part of a different family within the same order of even-toed ungulates.
  The musk deer of Asia and chevrotains of tropical African and Asian forests are separate families within the ruminant clade. They are not especially closely related to deer among the Ruminantia.
  Deer appear in art from Paleolithic cave paintings onwards, and they have played a role in mythology, religion, and literature throughout history, as well as in heraldry. Their economic importance includes the use of their meat as venison, their skins as soft, strong buckskin, and their antlers as handles for knives. Deer hunting has been a popular activity since at least the Middle Ages and remains a resource for many families today.
context_section_description: Deer have long had economic significance to humans. Deer meat, known as venison, is highly nutritious. Due to the inherently wild nature and diet of deer, venison is most often obtained through deer hunting. In the United States, it is produced in small amounts compared to beef but still represents a significant trade. By 2012, some 25,000 tons of red deer were raised on farms in North America. The major deer-producing countries are New Zealand, the market leader, with Ireland, Great Britain and Germany. The trade earns over $100 million annually for these countries.
  The skins make a peculiarly strong, soft leather, known as buckskin. There is nothing special about skins with the fur on since the hair is brittle and soon falls off. The hoofs and horns are used for ornamental purposes, especially the antlers of the roe deer, which are utilized for making umbrella handles, and for similar purposes; elk horn is often employed in making knife handles. In China, a medicine is made from stag horn, and the antlers of certain species are eaten when "in the velvet". Among the Inuit, the traditional ulu women's knife was made with an antler, horn, or ivory handle.
  Deer have long been bred in captivity as ornaments for parks, but only in the case of reindeer has thorough domestication succeeded. The Sami of Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula of Russia and other nomadic peoples of northern Asia use reindeer for food, clothing, and transport. Deer bred for hunting are selected based on the size of the antlers. In North America, the reindeer, known there as caribou, is not domesticated or herded, but it is important as a quarry animal to the Caribou Inuit.
  Automobile collisions with deer can impose a significant cost on the economy. In the U.S., about 1.5 million deer-vehicle collisions occur each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Those accidents cause about 150 human deaths and $1.1 billion in property damage annually. In Scotland, several roads including the A82, the A87 and the A835 have had significant enough problems with deer vehicle collisions (DVCs) that sets of vehicle activated automatic warning signs have been installed along these roads.
  In some areas of the UK, deer (especially fallow deer due to their gregarious behaviour), have been implicated as a possible reservoir for transmission of bovine tuberculosis, a disease which in the UK in 2005 cost £90 million in attempts to eradicate. In New Zealand, deer are thought to be important as vectors picking up M. bovis in areas where brushtail possums Trichosurus vulpecula are infected, and transferring it to previously uninfected possums when their carcasses are scavenged elsewhere. The white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus has been confirmed as the sole maintenance host in the Michigan outbreak of bovine tuberculosis which remains a significant barrier to the US nationwide eradication of the disease in livestock. In 2008, 733,998 licensed deer hunters killed approximately 489,922 white-tailed deer to procure venison, control the deer population, and minimize the spread of disease. These hunters purchased more than 1.5 million deer harvest tags. The economic value of deer hunting to Michigan's economy is substantial. For example, in 2006, hunters spent US$507 million hunting white-tailed deer in Michigan.
  Deer hunting is a popular activity in the U.S. that provides the hunter's family with high quality meat and generates revenue for states and the federal government from the sales of licenses, permits and tags. The 2006 survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that license sales generate approximately $700 million annually. This revenue generally goes to support conservation efforts in the states where the licenses are purchased. Overall, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that big game hunting for deer and elk generates approximately $11.8 billion annually in hunting-related travel, equipment and related expenditures.
caption: Nicholas Mavrogenes, Phanariote Prince of Wallachia, riding through Bucharest in a stag−drawn carriage. Late 1780s
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