Deer Management

The Duke Forest Teaching and Research Laboratory conducts several deer management activities on an annual basis, including:

Deer Herd Reduction Program—

• The goal of this program is to reduce the overabundant White-tailed Deer population by conducting a controlled hunt across several divisions of the Duke Forest.
• This program is conducted through the NC Wildlife Resources Commission’s Deer Management Assistance Program.
• Deer hunting in the Duke Forest is conducted by an organization of highly skilled hunters that provides landowner assistance; it is not open to the general public.

Deer Spotlight Survey—

• The goal of this wildlife survey to estimate the abundance and distribution of deer in the Duke Forest.
• The Spotlight Survey takes place over the course of six evenings every spring. Duke Forest staff and student volunteers utilize high-powered flashlights (or spotlights) to look for deer and count each individual observed across five standardized routes. These surveys provide valuable field experience for Nicholas School of the Environment students.

Data Analysis—

• Each year, the Duke Forest collects a multitude of data about the deer population during both the Deer Herd Reduction Program and Spotlight Survey.
• Our staff then conducts a robust data analysis to determine trends in the Duke Forest deer population over time. This includes estimating the number of deer per square mile; estimating population health by analyzing trends in the sex, age, and weight of each deer harvested during hunting; and more.

Partnership and Collaboration—

• Duke Forest collaborates with multiple partners for our deer management efforts (read more in the related FAQ below). Importantly, data from our deer management program is shared with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and supports their important work to monitor and protect wildlife across the state.

Humans have eliminated many top predators native to North American ecosystems (e.g., Eastern Cougars, Black Bears, Wolves), causing White-tailed Deer populations to greatly increase. Over time, this has led to an overabundance of deer (i.e., beyond a generally accepted ecological carrying capacity) and a host of negative “downstream” effects in forest ecosystems. Read more about this on our Wildlife Management page.

Duke Forest’s deer management program results in multiple benefits for forest health, and for our important teaching, research, and community engagement goals. These benefits include:

• Promoting a deer population that is healthy in size and distribution.
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  • Improves individual deer’s access to food, shelter, and resources.
  • Reduces the spread of disease within the deer population.
  • Reduces the spread of tick-borne diseases to humans.
  • Reduces deer-vehicle collisions.
• Protecting plants, shrubs, and tree seedlings from overabundant deer browsing.
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  • Promotes plant diversity, protects forest regeneration, and sustains wildlife habitats.
  • Provides a landscape and foundation for teaching and research to take place in the Duke Forest. We can’t fulfill the Forest’s potential as an outdoor classroom and living laboratory if the ecosystem is significantly disrupted by the effects of overabundant deer.

Due to the reproductive cycle of White-tailed Deer, Duke Forest’s deer management program must be accomplished on a consistent, annual basis to maintain negative pressure on the population and reduce its negative impacts on the forest ecosystem. Managing the White-tailed Deer population is a high-priority activity and contributes to all of our goals here at the Duke Forest.

Each year, Duke Forest works closely with regional wildlife biologists, a highly skilled hunter group, and Duke University partners to conduct and assess our deer management activities. These partnerships assist the Duke Forest in setting our annual deer management goals, understanding recent scientific literature and trends about the effects of the White-tailed Deer population on forest health, collecting and analyzing data about the Duke Forest deer population, and more.

Our partners include:

• North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission
• An organization of highly skilled bowhunters
• Duke University administrators and faculty
• Student volunteers from Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment

Our Deer Management program is a highly regulated program with a pre-selected group of highly skilled bowhunters who participate in mandatory orientation sessions, contribute to data collection protocols, and coordinate regularly with Duke Forest staff. No one is allowed to hunt in Duke Forest except this pre-selected group. No exceptions. Evidence of poaching is always formally reported to NC Wildlife Investigations personnel.

If you are interested in participating in the select hunter group next year, please contact our office after mid-December.

The Forest is only closed Monday – Friday. It is open for recreation on Saturdays and Sundays. The goal of the weekday closure is to maximize the safety and effectiveness of the hunt program, which is a critically important management activity conducted to protect the health of the forest ecosystem.  

We work with select groups of highly skilled hunters and for them to be effective, they need an environment that is minimally disturbed. Our hunters use either bow and arrow (Durham and Korstian) or gun (Blackwood), and so by separating hunting activity from recreational activity, we maximize everyone’s safety.

Recreation is a longstanding and important ancillary benefit of the Forest’s existence, but it’s only ever been allowed when it does not conflict with teaching, research, or management. Deer herd reduction is a critical stewardship activity that significantly contributes to our primary objective of ensuring that the Duke Forest remains a teaching, research, and natural asset well into the future.

We have considered changes to the weekday closure in the past, but it is not practical for our hunt partners. We work with a select group of hunters who travel sometimes significant distances to partner with us in this work. Each hunter must deal with the vagaries of weather and their own work and home responsibilities in order to uphold their responsibilities to our hunt program. We need to give them the flexibility of a Monday – Friday schedule. It would be significantly easier for them if we allowed weekend hunting, as is permissible in our state, but we have always avoided doing so because recreational use has always been (and remains) highest on the weekends.

Coyote populations have been increasing in this area for some time, and while it is documented that they do take some deer, they do not replace the function that human hunters provide in controlling deer populations. This quick, easy -to-read blog post gives a great overview of why that is.

There are lots of places nearby to recreate. Check out opportunities offered by Triangle Land Conservancy, Orange and Durham Counties, and North Carolina State Parks. Please visit the website for each entity to understand current safety or closure notices, as well as to appreciate the mission, purpose, and management of each land base.