Deer population on sharp decline

Re Sloan Smith’s letter Wednesday on whitetail deer and collisions:

These facts are verifiable at S.C. Deparrment of Natural Resources’ website, www.dnr.sc.gov.

My wife and I own 707 Deer Processing in Socastee and possess detailed knowledge about this subject. Our whitetail deer population is in serious decline. Unfortunately, the public and most hunters are not even aware of this decline. Not much can be done to stop it.

Their population has been reduced by 40 percent over the past 12 years; 25 years prior to that, we were experiencing an overpopulation. Their population is declining about 4 percent annually. Their numbers have dropped from 1,100,000 to approximately 650,000 during this brief period.

The two main causes are the explosion of the coyote population (approximately 350,000 and of that, hunters kill 35,000 each year), which kills and eats 56 percent of all fawns born (also responsible for the loss of people's cats and small dogs in Myrtle Beach) and the maturation of the state's pine forests. SCDNR is pursuing a Deer Harvest Tagging law to stem this loss. It has passed the Senate twice but never the House. We urge everyone to support SCDNR's efforts to save our whitetail deer population.

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 7:56 AM with the headline "Deer population on sharp decline."