Old timers in the eastern North Carolina area remember very well that we didn’t have many whitetail deer in our part of the country. If one should have been lucky enough to spot a deer in those days, it became the topic of conversation as the outdoorsmen sat around the fire and discussed the world of hunting and fishing.

In later years as agriculture practices, good wildlife management on the part of our wildlife commission and the hunters themselves, the deer herds across our area expanded tremendously. In fact, it expanded so much that some farmers considered the newly expanded deer population to be a problem. Hundreds of deer were legally killed and left in the fields to rot because they were eating the farmers out of a significant portion of their yearly incomes.

City dwellers began to see their shrubs and flowerbeds decimated by urban deer populations. Special depredation permits were issued to professional hunters who were hired to quietly remove excess deer from towns that had problems with these deer.

In the last couple of decades, the deer herds in eastern North Carolina seemed to be in pretty good shape. There were some problems with diseases that tended to knock the whitetail deer populations down for a while, but overall we had a good population of deer in our area. Diseases do happen a lot when a population of animals (including us humans) becomes too dense. That’s nature’s way of controlling an over-population.

Diseases among our whitetail deer aren’t very unusual. They do occasionally happen, but this year there haven’t been any significant (documented) cases of disease among our deer.

What has many deer hunters and wildlife observers concerned about deer his year is that we seem to be seeing far less deer than we’ve seen in the past years. They’re asking about just “what’s going on with our deer herd?”

The numbers of deer killed during last year’s hunting season were down according to the NCWRC and, of course, the figures aren’t available for this year’s hunting seasons. If these concerns being expressed by our hunter’s early on in this year’s deer season prove to valid, our deer herd could be in trouble.

When I’ve asked a lot of our deer hunters how they feel about this perceived lack of deer this year, they usually reply that the relatively new and growing population of coyotes (and or red wolves) is killing our deer. Even this week predators such as coyotes or red wolves are being accused of killing and wounding horses in Washington County. Any predator capable of killing even a small horse is easily capable of killing a juvenile or an adult whitetail deer.

There’s no question that every ecosystem should contain a top predator. That’s nature’s way of controlling an over-population of animals. In today’s world, man (hunters) has become that top predator that controls a possible over population of whitetail deer. If all deer hunting should be stopped for some reason, than another top predator such as coyotes or red wolves would (and can) take over the job of controlling an over-population of deer. One can’t help but wonder if the canines (coyotes and wolves) that have recently appeared in our section of North Carolina are replacing humans as the top predator. A significant number of people obviously want to see that happen.

When a federal judge banned the hunting of coyotes in Beaufort, Hyde, Washington, Tyrell and Dare Counties because of fears that hunters might mistake a red wolf for a coyote, the door was wide open for the expansion of large predators to take over the control of our deer herds. Many are worried that these canines are responsible for the decline in the number of deer that we are used to having around each fall.

Those coyote hunting restrictions were somewhat lessened recently, but it may have been too late to give our deer hunters a good year for our sport. Those wonderful venison dinners may be a little lacking for what may (hopefully) be a few years while the coyote/red wolf problem is solved.