Meet the Deer:
Ocean Shores deer are legendary. They are a frustration not only to gardeners, but to anyone who drives around here. But there is, no denying that they are beautiful, and a unique addition to our town. Who isn’t charmed by those little spotted Bimbi’s, who just happen to be the worst offenders? They munch away, pulling up anything and everything, as they learn what to eat and what not.
If you are a gardener, the deer are never your friends. How they turn one into a curmudgeon as they threaten plants carefully nursed from seed, seedling, or tender nursery stock! After taking a long, hard look at the deer and gathering suggestions (from books, internet pages, and numerous personal interviews) I have concluded that there are only three things a gardener can do:
- Get the plants out of their reach (mostly through fences),
- Try a deer deterrent,
- Plant deer resistant plants or
- Just live with it (let the deer be deer)
Let us take a look at the deer themselves. The most predominant species west of the Cascades, and the only one seen in Grays Harbor is the Columbian black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus.) This is a smaller, subspecies of the Mule Deer, which is more commonly seen in other parts of Washington.
The Columbian black-tail’s tail is black all the way down to its rump. Should you be in the Cascades, notice that the Mule Deer’s tail is black only at the tip. The Columbian has smaller, stubby antlers while the larger Mule Deer’s antlers are bigger and more complex. Both lose their antlers in the winter and regrow them each spring. The new antlers regrow covered with a fine fur, called “velvet.” When the buck’s antlers are full-grown, he gets rid of the velvet by rubbing on exposed tree trunks, which is damaging to or can kill young trees.
The Columbian black-tail in cities has a small home range, living most of its life in the same square mile. The deer that visit your garden have adopted you as their food source and will return from year to year. (Are they your pets or are you theirs?) Stags will live about four years and does about nine. Both live longer if you provide them food either from your garden or by hand.
Does produce offspring in their second year and each year thereafter. Like humans they naturally produce one or rarely two each year unless they have abundant food. In Ocean Shores, they more commonly produce two or three fawns a season. They mate in the fall and give birth in late May or June, so we should be seeing the Bimbi’s soon. Guard your spring growth carefully, especially those promising flower buds! (Identification info from Gene Woodwick’s pamphlets for the Coastal Interpretive Center)
In their native forest habitat, deer densities range from one or two, per 40-50 acres. The Ocean Shores peninsula covers about 6,000 acres, so by that count we should expect a population of 120-150 deer. Ya sure, you betcha! Nobody keeps count in the cities, but several families of four or five each wander through my neighborhood daily. When I lived up at the Jetty, the deer rivaled the seagull population.
The Ocean Shores deer overpopulation is largely due to a lack of predators and increased easy feeding. Wolves are their major predators, but our coyotes do take down a few. Oh boy, I hope we are not feeding the coyotes into an overpopulation problem too! (Please DON’T feed the deer!!)
The deer are a nuisance to gardeners but that is not the major overpopulation problem. If you travel by car, be sure and keep careful watch, especially in the early morning or late afternoon when they most come out to feed, but also at twilight and in a fog when visibility might be impaired. In 2018 the city Public Works handled 132 dead deer calls, largely from car-deer accidents (Daily World June 9,2018.)
Deer overpopulation spreads disease rapidly. The many “mangy” deer we saw last season were suffering from the hair-loss syndrome, caused by the Eurasian Damalinia (Cervicola) lice. This DOES NOT affect humans or domestic animals, but causes severe hair loss, allergic skin reactions and over grooming in deer. So far this season, most of the deer have retained their lovely, brown coats.
Deer also carry fleas and ticks. This includes the ticks causing lymes disease that can jump to humans. (Deer density and disease info from Anthony Novack, Biologist from Montesano Region 6, Department of Fish and Wildlife.) Although minimally known in King County we have not yet seen lymes disease in Grays Harbor.
For a starters, the best plant list for Grays Harbor is “Deer Resistant Plants–Western Washington” put together by the North Coast Master Gardeners.
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For questions, comments about this article, the deer or to share your gardening experiences, please contact Dauna at: dauna@gardenbytheseaoceanshores.org
This article was originally printed in The Ocean Observer, April 2020.
