Tick-carrying deer are moving in next door

 

White-tailed deer — known to carry tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease — may now be making their homes in suburban neighborhoods, rather than stopping by for a midnight snack. 

Efforts to control the East Coast’s heavily overpopulated deer population have largely assumed that these animals live in wooded parklands and only pass through nearby neighborhoods for after-dark grazing.  

But a five-year study, published on Monday in Urban Ecosystems, has found that these deer are settling into residential areas — spending entire nights within 50 meters (164 feet) of suburban households.  

“We knew deer were in and around neighborhoods, but we didn’t realize just how much they were living in the neighborhoods,” senior author Jennifer Mullinax, an assistant professor of environmental science at the University of Maryland, said in a statement...MORE  

I just love this article. You want more wildlife? Well here it is, tearing up habitat in your pretty little parks and spreading disease in your own back yard. hee,hee