Category:Deer

Since 1980, when the Ministry of Natural Resources started controlling the harvest of adult female white-tailed deer, deer populations in most of southern Ontario have increased substantially. Ontario’s current deer population is estimated to be approximately 450,000 animals.

An increase in deer abundance has the potential to increase wildlife-vehicle collisions, damage to agricultural lands, and the spread of transmittable diseases. In response, MNR has created additional and longer deer hunting seasons and allowed individual hunters to take several deer. Furthermore, in recent years MNR has established an annual deer cull in several provincial parks, a measure that may be related to the virtual absence of deer predators, such as eastern wolves and cougars, in southern Ontario.