Counting White-Tailed Deer at Arkansas Post National Memorial, 2024

White-tailed deer are among the most charismatic animals at Arkansas Post National Memorial — and it is hard to picture that they were nearly extinct in the early 1900s, from overhunting and the clearing of forests. Hunting regulations, and the removal of most of their natural predators, have since let deer populations grow as never before. Without predators, deer can become overpopulated and die of disease and starvation. Scientists of the NPS Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network monitor them to see how the population changes over time.

White-tailed deer at Arkansas Post National Memorial. Photo: NPS.

Why monitor deer?

Managers at the memorial restore oak forests and remove invasive plants to keep the cultural landscape close to its historical character. Deer love to browse tree saplings and other native plants, so when there are too many:

• overbrowsing can undo restoration work and favor invasive plants;
• deer spread ticks that carry disease to other animals and people, and disease becomes harder to manage;
• deer–vehicle collisions become more likely.

Monitoring helps park staff make decisions that protect deer, other wildlife, park habitats and people.

How the deer are counted

Monitoring began in 2005, to follow yearly changes and long-term trends and to map where the deer are. Every winter, between January and mid-March, the team drives the park's two main tour roads at night with bright spotlights, counting deer.

Photo: NPS.

What 2005–2024 shows

• Numbers fell for two years during a disease outbreak, then rose sevenfold between 2007 and 2011.
• The population declined until 2017, then recovered, tripling by 2019.
• Density ranged from an average of 17 deer per square kilometer in 2007 to 119 in 2011.

Deer numbers can swing widely from year to year: disease, starvation and other causes can cut a population quickly, but deer reproduce readily and can recover just as quickly. Monitoring will continue, to help the park manage deer and understand what drives their numbers.

The area visible from the survey vehicle in 2024 (dark blue), and the places deer were seen on one of the surveys (dots). Map: NPS.

Did you know?

Letting a deer population grow until disease sets in harms deer, other animals and people. Hemorrhagic disease and chronic wasting disease occur when there are too many deer.

• Hemorrhagic disease can kill 50 percent or more of a population in a year, and can persist for several years. One form is not known to infect people or livestock; the other can make domestic sheep severely ill and kill them.
• Deer also carry ticks. Moving from place to place, they spread ticks infected with Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and ehrlichiosis, which can harm people and domestic animals.

Keeping deer numbers under control protects deer, people and other animals alike.

Photo: NPS.

Sources

Based on "Deer Monitoring at Arkansas Post National Memorial in Arkansas, 2024," Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.