MAINE - Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife estimates Maine's deer population to be 320,000; however, their abundance can range anywhere from one to five per square mile in northern areas to 15 to 35 in central and southern regions.
Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife estimates Maine's deer population to be 320,000
Maine deer herd management requires taking into account deer population size as an important component. Too large of an abundance can become a source of nuisance to local communities through damage caused to crops, gardens and residential yards by excessively dense herds; additionally this could increase tick-borne diseases such as Lyme disease and Babesiosis.
Following the extirpation of cougars and wolves from Maine, deer numbers increased quickly due to lack of natural predators; however, habitat changes, severe winters, coyote colonization and other factors have since reduced it considerably.
People can help maintain deer populations at manageable levels through various actions they can take. For instance, many Mainers in areas with lower deer densities have begun feeding the animals during winter - this practice however can have negative consequences on herd health and often leads to larger herds composed of more male deer than female ones - an imbalance not ideal for Maine's deer populations.
Mossy Oak reports that you have only a one in 30,000 chance of seeing an albino deer, which features solid white fur with pink eyes, nose and hooves. Piebald deers (which feature mostly white with black ears and hooves) are even rarer; one Falmouth man thought he may have seen one during a recent YouTube video but this may just have been chance.
