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chrisco255last Monday at 3:29 AM1 replyview on HN

Not really. The deer that thrive in suburban areas learn to watch for traffic. Even where deer vs car collisions are common, deer multiply well beyond what car traffic takes out. Really, hunting is the only way to thin the numbers.

Deer eat grass, they can thrive almost anywhere in North America just fine with or without people feeding them.

In suburbs they probably need to capture and slaughter some number of them to keep the numbers reasonable.


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pfdietzlast Monday at 11:16 AM

Deer can eat grass, but it's not their preferred food, and they can't thrive on it. They eat forbs, shoots, browse (twigs, buds, etc.) and mast like acorns (they are set up to deal with the large amounts of tannin in acorns).

https://www.msudeer.msstate.edu/deer-diet.php

"Although low quality forages such as mature grasses provide adequate nutrition to animals such as elk and cattle, the quicker digestive process of whitetails requires more readily digestible forages to fulfill their energy and protein requirements. On severely overpopulated and depleted ranges, white-tailed deer have starved to death with their stomachs full of low quality forages."

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