'Day or night' deer sightings prompt Yarmouth to search for solutions

When Yarmouth Mayor Pam Mood comes home from work each night, there's usually a group of six to eight four-legged visitors waiting for her.

"If it's dark out, I have to put my lights on because sometimes I open my door and they kind of scoot by on the pavement and scare the life out of me," she said. "I've jumped, like, 10 feet high [three metres] more times than I can count."

The deer population has exploded in the southwestern Nova Scotia town. Officials are now looking to get concrete numbers and come up with a plan to do something about the problem.

Coun. Gil Dares chairs the deer management working group. He moved to Yarmouth around 40 years ago and said it was rare to see deer in town.

"And now you can see deer all time of day or night," he said.

The first step is to get an accurate count of the animals, Dares said. One option is to count their pellets, but that has limitations.

"There's very few areas that would allow for that to be a successful way of establishing how many deer are in the area because you just can't walk through people's backyards and over their fences," he said.

For that reason, Dares said other options are being considered, such as using a thermal-imaging device. But he cautioned that might be cost-prohibitive.

Using game cameras is yet another possibility, Dares said.

The committee also plans to send out a survey so residents can provide information about sightings and share their concerns, he said.

'We've already lost one life,' says mayor

Mood said a motorcyclist died a couple years ago after colliding with a deer.

"We've already lost one life, which is one life too many," she said.

In addition to getting numbers, Dares said the town is preparing a report looking at the pros and cons of different options, such as relocating or culling the deer, Dares said.

It's also working with the Department of Natural Resources, which it needs approval from before taking action.

The Truro approach

Dares cautioned there's no quick fix and used Truro, N.S., as an example.

Concerns about the deer population there date back at least a decade. But it wasn't until last year that culls took place. Truro Mayor Bill Mills said 41 deer were killed, and another hunt is planned for this fall.

For now, Dares is urging people not to approach the deer or feed them.

Mills echoes that advice.

"The big issue to control growth is for well-meaning folks to stop feeding the deer," he wrote in an email to CBC News.

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