are the woodland creatures commiting suicide?!

[Engine]

>>When animals die or become extinct other animals lose their source of food. The chain is left unbalanced.

Exactly. That's exactly what's happened to the deer. We killed off most of the mountain lions, etc. that are their natural predators. As a result, the deer population has exploded, and there isn't enough food to handle all those deer, so many of them starve. There are a couple solutions to this: hunting, which results in less deer, but happier deer )); re-introduction of their natural predators, which is much harder than hunting, has the same result for the deer, but also causes problems with these animals mistaking campers for deer. :-/

As far as other options, well... *shrug*

 

[JellyBaby]

<< why would they just kill them instead of relocating them? >>

Not sure. I'd think relocation would be cheaper, actually. They're bringing in a team of sharpshooters from some state out east so that option must be pricey. Deer are considered &quot;nuisance animals&quot; in that area. While you need a permit to hunt them, a special waiver was given to the airport, which I believe runs out in a couple of months, to terminiate these deer. They probably had to act quickly before their permit expires (it's no guarantee they'd be able to tranqulize all of the deer in time).

It's probably a good move. If, for example, my father was killed while his plane overturned on landing because it ran into a deer I'd be outraged. It's in the best interests of the airport and its customers to deal with the deer asap.

 

[FettsBabe]

How many deer are there? I doubt it would be any harder to tranquilize them than it would be to kill them. Personally I think tranquilizing is the way to go. If they kill them they still have to rid themselves of the bodies. What are they eating anyway? Our local airport is nothing but concrete and pavement!!!

 

[JellyBaby]

FettsBabe,

Two dozen deer I believe. They roam over a large acreage of land so that might be part of the problem. This isn't an international airport or anything...I think it's a regional/municipal/hub type of airport. Lots of woods nearby I guess, so there's plenty of vegetation for the deer.