The Eureka Mirror

Five Deer Increase to 162 in Six Years at Michigan Zoology Museum

In only six years, three bucks and two does released on a reserve near Pinckney increased to a total of 162 deer, according to a tally made by a group of naturalists of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, in the first actual count of deer ever to be made on a measured area in Michigan.

"Although most of us believed that the deer herd was increasing very fast during the past few years, this number of 162 deer is much greater than was generally believed to be present," commented the keeper of the reserve for the University of Michigan museum.

The use of the reserve has been given to the university as an area for biological observation. About thirty people, which included many members of the scientific staff of the university museum and the Michigan conservation department, participated in the deer drive and tally. When the figures were finally compiled, it was found that there were 88 does, 43 bucks and 33 fawns. According to the keeper, it is quite possible, however, that these numbers are not entirely accurate, since the count was not completed until late afternoon, when it was quite possible for a spike horn to be counted as a doe.

As the deer herd continues to multiply on this small area, the university museum hopes to discover at what point the height of population will be reached, when parasites and disease will enter in because of overcrowding, together with other facts of importance to the welfare of all of Michigan's white-tailed deer.—Detroit Free Press.