Deer: Trap & Relocate

TRAP AND TRANSLOCATE
(Not approved by IDNR in free-ranging contexts)

A number of communities throughout the country have employed a "trap and relocate" approach to urban deer. This method involves trapping deer in problem areas and moving them somewhere else.

EFFICACY

• High Mortality
  Studies have shown that approximately 4% of the deer die in transport, as many as 25% of translocated deer die within the first two months of trapping and translocation, and more than 85% of deer may not survive longer than one year.* These deer tend to have high mortality rates resulting from capture-related injuries, unfamiliarity with the release site and encounters with new mortality agents.
  
  Many deer suffer from a type of trapping stress called capture myopathy. Capture myopathy is a degenerative disease of skeletal muscle associated with the increased muscular exertion and over stimulation of the nervous system as a result of the capture, restraint, and transportation of animals. Illness and death may result due to disruption of normal circulation, muscle tissue damage, and electrolyte imbalance. Affected animals may show muscle tremors or muscle rigidity, weakness, hyperthermia, respiratory difficulty, collapse, and death. Animals that do not die acutely may succumb later due to inadequate oxygen supply to the kidneys and from toxic products of muscle breakdown.

• Low Availability of Release Sites
  Translocation efforts are further complicated by lack of suitable release site. Most habitats within the species' native range are already saturated with deer and cannot withstand supplemental stocking without risking damage to the habitats.

• Disease Transmission
  This technique has the potential to spread harmful diseases such as Chronic Wasting Disease and Tuberculosis from one deer population to another.

COST: $400/deer

MAINTENANCE: Required as new deer immigrate in.

SAFETY: This approach poses little risk to human safety.

IDNR: Live trap and translocation, and release of deer into a free-ranging situation is not endorsed by the IDNR for the following reasons:

1) The population of white-tailed deer in Indiana is at a high level. The high deer numbers statewide is exemplified by high hunter harvest and high numbers of deer-vehicle accidents.

2) Competition for resources with resident deer.

3) Low survival of translocated deer. A large percentage of the translocated animals could be expected to die due to traumatic causes, including capture myopathy and deer vehicle accidents.

4) Translocated deer tend to drift back into urban situations at their new locations.**

* O'Bryan and McCullough, Beringer, J., L/P. Hansen, W. Wilding, J. Fischer, and S. L. Sheriff. 1996."Factors Affecting Capture Myopathy in White-Tailed Deer," Journal of Wildlife Management 60: 373-380; New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, An Evaluation of Deer Management Options. Publication No. DR-11. 16p.

** Policies and Procedures, Division of Fish and Wildlife, "Human Conflicts with White-Tailed Deer," June 16, 2010.