Deer Birth Control?

[blake]

This brief article is not about the Iowa Deer herd!

But will this be the answer that some are looking for?????????



North Carolina Island Considering Deer Birth Control

Birth control for Bambi may be the only option to reduce the deer population on a North Carolina island where hunting is forbidden.

The village leaders on Bald Head Island are looking into a contraception program to help control the growing deer population.

The plan under consideration would use a dart laced with contraceptives that is fired at female deer, preventing them from becoming pregnant.

Village Manager Calvin Peck says there are about 180 deer on the island, the upper limit that the island can support.

In the past, the island has hired hunters to cull the herd with guns.

But conditions on the island may suit the contraception program being developed by researchers at North Carolina State University.

 

[mplane72]

Good Lord! A fine use of the NC tax payers money.

 

[LoessHillsArcher]

Has this ever been done on any wild animals anywhere?

 

[dedgeez]

Has this ever been done on any wild animals anywhere?

Here is some info they should consider before wasting there time!

Researchers have given up on a contraception program as a possible cure for the state of New Jersey's overpopulation of deer. Studies by federal wildlife agencies in Madison, New Jersey and Silver Spring, Maryland "fell short" of the goal. The drug, GonaCon, a one-shot, long lasting contraceptive produced only mixed results.
The first year of the test program had a 30 percent failure rate according to wildlife biologists in charge of the New Jersey phase of the program. The Silver Spring, Maryland program started off with promising results. But a 12 percent failure rate in year one didn't hold up, with more than half the deer at the National Wildlife Research Center becoming pregnant in year two.

Officials had hoped to use the one-shot vaccine to sterilize deer for up to five years and even longer should the animal be darted a second time.

"The magic bullet is just not out there yet," said Larry Herrighty, chief of the state Bureau of Wildlife Management. "We need a one-shot injection that can be delivered remotely, without the need or cost of tagging each deer."

Officials point out that should the program have been successful, it would have still have been combined with hunting or culling to reduce a population officials say is totally out of control. Today, officials will again choose between sharpshooting, and trapping/euthanizing deer in more densely populated areas.

Controlling the deer population is not an inexpensive proposition - even under the current thinning practices. According to officials, sharpshooters eliminating deer costs between $150 and $300 per deer. The cost of trapping, injecting and tracking contraceptive-injected deer, however, would run about $1,000 per deer. Sportsmen, it was pointed out, pay the state, towns and land owners to shoot deer. The study was the result of the New Jersey League of Municipalities voting to ask for $5 million for "intensive research and swift development" of a long-lasting deer contraception method and a one-shot delivery program.

The results, however, were about what program critics had predicted. And a third study is also underway, but year one results have shown a forty percent failure rate.

The lead researcher on the program wants to continue testing the formula, but the research depends on funding. Jim Gionfriddo, research wildlife biologist for the National Wildlife Research Center, which managed both studies, is still pushing the USDA to ask the Environmental Protection Agency to officially register the GonaCon as an 'approved product" that could be used by state game agencies on deer, moose and elk populations. Gionfriddo's rationale is that "even it it's not 100 percent successful, it's another tool in the arsenal to do something about overabundant wildlife."

 

[dedgeez]

My idea of deer contraception is a 180gr Barnes Triple Shock out of my .300 ultra mag! These people amaze me!

 

[LoessHillsArcher]

My idea of deer contraception is a 180gr Barnes Triple Shock out of my .300 ultra mag! These people amaze me!

Shoot you'd even pay the $ for a tag to do that... rather then have them spend a few hundred bucks to knock just one down they could make a little. Wonder why they refuse to try hunting?