KENT COUNTY, Mich. — The Department of Natural Resources is looking at different ways to control the rising deer population in the state. They urge caution throughout West Michigan as deer start to mobilize frequently during breeding season this fall.
"For Kent County anyway, what we've seen is about a 29% increase in deer-vehicle collisions over the past five years," said Jared Duquette from the Department of Natural Resources.
The city of Kalamazoo is encouraging people to use caution while driving after a city report showed a total of 336 car-deer crashes over the last 10 years. Duquette said the caution applies to all counties across Michigan.
"Just last year alone in Kent County, there was 2,171 reported collisions with deer. These areas are kind of refuges for them and so they're moving from these little pockets of woodlands to another woodlands. A lot of times too, we see with higher traffic speeds, that increases risk of deer collisions," said Duquette.
Duquette said car-deer crashes have long been an issue. He said the crashes are most prevalent from September to December because the fall is breeding season for the deer, which makes them move around more.
"Deer tend to move during kind of dawn and dusk hours, that's when we see the most movement, especially during fall. So it kind of talked about, you know, the breeding season and mobility and so right now, until especially kind of get through winter time, just be mindful that deer are moving," said Duquette.
The city of Grand Rapids held a public safety meeting last week and agreed on a deer population survey being conducted this fall. Duquette said deer can carry diseases and sometimes be dangerous, so he advised people not to feed them. He urges the public to be mindful.
"We're going to continue to see very density or populations in the area if we don't start to proactively manage those populations. We just want our public to be mindful of, you know, what deer can do some odd things sometimes, and so just be judicious about what you do. We want them to be afraid of humans in a lot of cases here" said Duquette.