Deerland: America's Hunt for Ecological Balance and the Essence of Wildness
A little over a century ago, there were only 300,000 whitetail deer in the continental United States. Today that number has exploded a hundredfold, leading to deer-related problems, including environmental damage, Lyme disease outbreaks, and more than a million car accidents per year, with averages of $1 billion in vehicle damage and 200 deaths. In this often unsettling and occasionally wry overview of the country’s deer dilemma and some of its unheralded benefits, veteran wildlife journalist Cambronne delves deeply into the “deer industrial complex” and looks at the many proposed solutions for restoring a healthy ecosystem between human and herbivore. Beginning with a summary of the deer species’ many Darwinian fitness advantages, Cambronne then dissects the deer-hunting culture, including the billions spent on gear and even on real estate for good hunting grounds. He also profiles lower-income hunters dependent on venison for sustenance, drivers traumatized by deer run-ins, and wildlife biologists conducting deer birth-control experiments. Highly recommended for anyone concerned about sharing our land with these paradoxically gentle and destructive creatures. --Carl Hays