Depending upon where you live in these here United States will depend upon what time of the year the whitetail deer mating season, also called the rut, begins. Generally speaking it is in the fall to early winter months. During this time of year two major events for deer are taking place. One is the natural process of extensive foraging for food in preparation for the coming winter and two is the rut. With a combination of these two events deer are on the move more than at any other time of the year. This explains why auto/deer accidents are at their highest during this same time period.
I get frustrated (understatement) when people say and in particular, newspapers report that deer crashes with cars jumps up in the fall because hunters are chasing deer. I’m not a total idiot and I understand that there is a chance that under some circumstances of hunters in pursuit of deer, could cause a deer to run out into traffic to escape danger. This is rare. Besides, when looking at the same information about auto accidents, we find that the vast majority of these fall-time collisions happen at night.
So why then do newspaper writers make these statements?
Thousands of hunters took to the woods Monday for the start of deer season, and crashes involving the animals increased as a result.
This writer makes it sound as if these “thousands” of hunters purposefully forced the deer out into the highways causing widespread damage to cars and people. Oh, maybe that was their intent?
But it’s bad enough when some newspaper reporter is uninformed or misinformed but when law enforcement makes statements that paint equally bad images in the minds of the non-hunting public, it’s even worse.
“From October through January, deer are on the move, particularly at dawn and dusk,” Lt. David Cardana said. “But with hunters in the woods driving deer you can encounter one or more of the animals at any time during the day or night.”
While it is prudent to instruct drivers to always be on the lookout for wildlife in the roadways, it is irresponsible to make a statement that indicates to readers that hunters are driving deer into the roadways at night. Give me a break!
The article where I got this information makes no attempt in anyway to educate the readers to the facts about why deer are out more this time of year than at any time. It’s all about blaming the hunter. Unless there are special regulations in New Jersey that I am unaware of, hunting at night is prohibited.
Tom Remington
