Urbanization throughout much of Texas has resulted in diminished wildlife
habitat, resulting from fragmented landscapes. Several previous studies addressed the
public’s attitudes concerning the most acceptable white-tailed deer management
techniques in urban areas. As a departure from these studies on urban residents’
acceptance of alternative urban deer management strategies, this study assessed the types
of information required by urban residents to more fully understand the best
management practices for urban deer herds.
Two Texas communities, Lakeway and Hollywood Park, were chosen for this
study. Since the 1990s, urban deer herds have negatively impacted these communities
through increased deer-vehicle collisions, defined browse lines throughout the
community, and human-deer encounters. The current number of households in each
community was determined and used to calculate the household sample size in Lakeway
(N= 4,090, n = 704) and Hollywood Park (N= 1,547, n = 616).
An Internet survey was developed which asked an adult resident of each selected
household about his or her knowledge of factors that lead to population growth in urban
white-tailed deer populations, personal encounters with an urban deer herd in the community, the types of management options he or she would choose in dealing with the
urban deer herd, and why and what types of information the respondent would most like
to have regarding urban deer management. Finally, demographic information was asked
such as age, gender, level of education and years of residency in the neighborhood.
The information derived from this study reveals the public’s knowledge,
attitudes, actions, and expectations concerning over-abundant white-tailed deer
populations in Lakeway and Hollywood Park, Texas. This information can be used to
assist communities such as Lakeway and Hollywood Park, as well as the Texas Parks
and Wildlife Department, to develop appropriate educational materials that will provide
relevant, current, and accurate information about urban deer population ecology and
management for the urban resident. The methods of this study will serve as a useful tool
for others to develop pro-active management strategies for controlling over-abundant
urban white-tailed deer populations and aid in reducing the conflict between urban deer
managers and the public.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-3083 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Alderson, Jessica Lynn |
| Contributors | Adams, Clark E. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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