• Home
  • About Dan
  • Books by Daniel Botkin
    • Signed Books
  • Reflections & Opinions
    • Renegade Naturalist Radio
  • Research
  • Dan Botkin’s Newsletter
    • Manage Your Account
  • Speaking & Consulting

Daniel B. Botkin

Solving environmental problems by understanding how nature works

  • People & Nature
  • Climate, Energy & Biodiversity
  • Myths, Folklore & Science

The Deer Hunt in Connecticut

March 19, 2007 By Daniel Botkin 1 Comment

Late in 2003, Friends of Animals and The Audubon Society were at odds over deer. Too many deer is a national problem---- what to do about them? Who can be against an individual deer, a bambi, grazing in a pasture, looking up with big eyes? And who can be against the conservation of an entire endangered species of a bird? Could it be that the Audubon Society does not like bambi? Could it be that Friends of Animals could want to cause the extinction a species? Seems impossible, but it appears to be at the heart of the controversy reported in Wednesday’s New York Times where Priscilla Feral, President of Friends of Animals in Darien, Connecticut, publicly opposed a deer hunt on Audubon Greenwich land, a hunt whose intention is to protect the habitat of endangered species of birds. How can two organizations, both appearing to be of good will, be on opposite sides of an issue about the health of nature and its wildlife?

As an ecologist who has done research on wildlife populations for decades, I recognize this as an inevitable consequence of a rule of ecology: what’s good for an individual is not always good for its population or species; and what’s good for the population or species is not always good for an individual. Each of us wants to live forever — myself included ---- but a world in which nobody died and babies continue to be born would soon be unlivable ---- Earth’s finite resources would not be enough. For a species to persist indefinitely, its individuals either cannot reproduce or cannot live forever. For an individual, a long live with many offspring is desirable.

We did not make nature, and we cannot change her rules. We can only learn what they are and try to figure out how to live with them. From a human point of view, this leads to an inevitable conflict of values. Each of us, as individuals, enjoys other individual animals. Each of us likes to see a population of animals healthy in a habitat that provides a wealth of resources. Natural rules of ecology tell us that the two are not obtainable for all time in any one place. The issue, based on a scientific understanding of population dynamics, leads to a choice based on values.

If we opt for the individual deer, then we have to find other ways that hunting to reduce the present population and future reproduction. We might introduce anti-reproductive hormones into the environment which pose their own environmental issues. And if this is all we did, we would have to watch many deer slowly die of starvation and disease, with their clear watery doe eyes replaced by eyes clouded with pain.

Another option is to make the habitat less favorable for deer. Our suburbanization of the landscape has created a wonderful deer habitat — all those yummy flowering plants easy to reach, those tasty young trees planted near new houses. We could impose zoning laws, or have a voluntary agreement in all suburban neighborhoods to plant only deer-hostile vegetation, whether or not these were beautiful or useful.

We could transport the deer as they became crowded to some other place — a costly solution and one that merely places the problem in someone else’s backyard — our nation is filling up with deer as suburbs expand nation wide.

The point here is that there is no easy solution, and no single right or wrong. Nature has given us the population dynamics of wildlife, and we have to acknowledge these rules. Solutions that make all sides happy may be expensive, have environmental consequences we do not like and perhaps can not predict.

With this understanding that the predicament is not one or the other side’s fault, but a consequence of nature, perhaps we can create an atmosphere where all the people of good will can sit down together and work out a solution that, while not being perfect from any single point of view, becomes an acceptable part of the values of our civilization.

Copyright © 2003 Daniel B. Botkin

Share Button

Filed Under: People & Nature

Comments

  1. environmental information says

    June 28, 2009 at 10:02 am

    Hi, Excellent post, some really useful environmental information here and well worth knowing about.

    Thanks

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

From Daniel B. Botkin, Ph.D

Daniel Botkin
I believe we are mostly on the wrong track in the way we try to deal with the environment. Everything I do, study, learn, and advise about the environment is different from the status quo. Throughout my career, I have tried to understand how nature works and use that understanding to figure out how we can solve our most pressing environmental problems.

My process over the past 45 years has been to look carefully at the facts, make simple calculations from them (sometimes simple computer models) and then tell people what I have learned. It’s surprising how rarely people bother to look at the facts. This has surprised me every time I’ve started a new ecology research project or work on an environmental issue.

In the course of my work and studies, I have learned many things and I want to tell you about them. That is the purpose of this website.

Follow @danielbotkin

Books by Dan Botkin

The Moon in the Nautilus Shell  Strange Encounters
Powering the Future  No Man's Garden
See all books by Dan Botkin

Jabowa III Forest Model


Jabowa Forest Model
Jabowa Forest Model for Windows 7.
This forest model, used around the world, was developed first in 1970 by Daniel B. Botkin, James F. Janak and James R. Wallis

JABOWA remains the most completely detailed and well validated forest growth model available, accounting for 95% or more of the variation in real forests where it has been tested.

The book Forest Dynamics: An Ecological Model (available as an eBook) provides a complete description of the model and the rationales behind its development.

Order Online

Sea Ice Study

The Bockstoce and Botkin Historical Sea Ice Data Study has a new home at the University of Alaska website. The data include more than 52,000 daily observations in an unbroken 65 year record from 1849 – 1914.

See related papers

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2006–2023 Daniel B. Botkin · Site by Webdancers · Log in