Meanwhile, hunting can also help the ecosystem as an environmental control. They can prevent disease caused by overpopulation or be a component of modern wildlife management, to limit the number of animals in a range in which the ecological system can hold.
In America, whitetail deer is one of the species that have overpopulation problem. The number of the deer is more than four times the habitat can support in Southern Maine.
Normally, the population of the whitetail deer should be 20 to 25 deers per mile. However, the number is about 100 deers per mile in the coastal communities in southern Maine. Hence, this causes a problem to people living there. These deers will eat the entire browse there and then will eat ornamental shrubs. Thus, these deers are considered having small skeletal bones and low fat reserves and are not natural compared to others. More than that, the deer may eat the vegetable in farms. In this way, the harvest will be less.
The reason for the deer overpopulation is that the number of predators in the area decreases. In the area, wolves are either killed by hunters or moved away a long time ago. Although in the area there are still other kinds of predators like bears, they are opportunistic hunter and eat various kinds of animals. Therefore, the number of deer being killed and eaten decreases.
As a result, solutions must be given out in order to stop the overpopulation from going on and affecting the wildlife.
Hence, hunters should be allowed to access to the overpopulated area where the whitetail deer is overpopulated. Hunters using various kinds of weapons like rifles, handguns, bows and arrows can directly kill deers. In America, the number of deer being killed is about 3% of the total animals killed by hunters. Although the number seems small, it shows the beginning of applying hunting as a solution to control the deer population growth.
To conclude, hunting absolutely is an applicable solution to deal with the problem of overpopulation to wildlife animals. It is, for sure, far more benefits than shortcomings.