As a deer population grows it will begin to reach the carrying capacity of an ecosystem, causing issues for other plants and wildlife. Plant life can begin to disappear locally because of browsing.These local disappearances directly effect the population of that plant species and indirectly effect other wildlife populations that also depend on the plant species for food. This ultimately lowers the biodiversity and changes the composition of the habitat, region, or area until the population of deer is lowered and the location is given time to recover.

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Deer populations may not always reach the carrying capacity, this can lead to an increase in human and deer interactions. These interactions can result in car accidents, crop damage, property damage and much more. These species interaction occur both in rural and urban areas where population of deer come into contact.

Each area comes with its own set of challenges as to which management practice is the most appropriate and effective. These challenges have led to the development of alternative methods of deer management. In suburban area, sharpshooting is used. Other locations may use methods like hunting, birth control, or repellents to manage the deer population.

 

Six species of deer live freely in the British countryside. Only red deer and roe deer are truly indigenous. Fallow deer were almost certainly introduced by the Normans while three Asiatic species, Reeves’ Muntjac, Chinese water deer and Sika deer arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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The characteristics of each species make them well-suited to the habitats found across Britain and highly adaptable to environmental changes. Together they make a valuable contribution to biodiversity and are some of our most engaging British mammals.

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Somewhat confusingly, the gender and offspring of deer species in the UK have different names.