Bambi Goes to Town

It seems that the UK's deer population are generally in a rude state of health -with more said to be in the country than at any time in the last one thousand years (http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/uk-deer009.html#cr). That, the greater connectivity between green spaces and the fact that culling is difficult to impossible in urban areas has reportedly led to many more deer taking up residence in towns and cities (being somewhat territorial, the less successful animals are forced out of so-called wild locations). This is presumably most obvious in the case of smaller alien species such as the Sika and Muntjac. Many city dwellers might well like to catch view of the occasional deer but there can be problems associated with these animals. They can decimate plants in gardens and parks (young trees can effectively be trashed), they can be involved in accidents with motor vehicles and they sometimes serve as reservoir hosts of tick-borne Lyme's disease. Deer can also be distinctly unpleasant when competing in the rutting season. As most deer are not legally owned by anyone, getting compensation for deer-associated damage can be difficult.