PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- A thousand acres of forest are being eaten alive by deer in Valley Forge National Historical Park and the herd has to be culled, Pennsylvania officials say.
The herd has multiplied eightfold in 25 years, and officials say federal sharpshooters with rifles and night-vision goggles aim to cut the herd from more than 1,200 to fewer than 200 during the next four years, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Sunday.
On Friday, animal-rights activists filed an emergency request to stop the cull approved by a federal judge last month.
Tensions between white-tailed deer and human beings are raging all over the country, as a species once on the verge of vanishing is now deemed overabundant, experts say.
Wildlife specialists say creeping urbanization, which has routed the deer's predators, inhibited hunting, and provided a veritable smorgasbord of backyard plantings, has been the biggest boon to whitetails since the retreat of the North American ice sheets 10,000 years ago.
Park managers at Valley Forge and elsewhere counter that deer overpopulation near developed areas is an ecological crisis, as the deer are devouring native plants and crowding out other animals, including rabbits and ground-nesting songbirds -- literally eating up those smaller creatures' houses and homes.
"I just hate killing them," Jeffrey Houdret, who lives close to the park, says. "They're wonderful animals. But, boy, there are a lot of them."
