Deer remain a big problem for Michigan drivers. According to state crash data, deer are involved in tens of thousands of crashes annually. Humans were reported injured in over 1,500 deer-related crashes during each of the last three years.
Does that mean there are too many deer in Michigan?
It turns out, state officials don’t really know how big Michigan’s deer population is. The Department of Natural Resources used to produce estimates, but stopped because the numbers were controversial and “not always accurate.”
Plus, officials say, population estimates aren’t really helpful when it comes to managing Michigan’s deer herd. It’s more valuable to get a sense of how the deer population seems to be changing based on how deer affect the state’s motorists, farmers, insurance companies, and residents.
“Overabundance is really about a human judgment to say that the consequences of having deer are not what we’d like them to be,” said Brent Rudolph. He’s the DNR’s deer, elk, and moose management specialist.
“To get an exact number on population is not a feasible thing,” added Rob Larson, a professor at Grand Valley State University who works with the Kent County Deer Management Coalition. Larson said their research enables them to locate where deer are most dense and study how these densities compare with car crash data and dead deer pickup numbers.
In a 2024 Kent County Deer Public Survey, over half of respondents said there were “too many deer” in their area.
A deer sheriff’s duty
Local municipalities and road commissions are tasked with keeping the roads clean. Some counties, such as Washtenaw County, move the deer to the side of the road and let nature take its course because the county says it does not have the capacity for full removal.
The Kent County Road Commission is different. As the second largest road agency in Michigan, it employs a driver to pick up roadkill full time. His name is Andy Albertson, but many know him simply as “the deer sheriff.”
“My day starts at six in the morning,” Albertson said. “I get a list of debris in the road that has to be picked up, put the locations of each dead animal on the window of my truck, and drive north to south. Whatever I pick up enters the county landfill at the end of the day.”
“You got to be on call for whatever comes up,” Albertson continued. He has come across dead turkeys, cows, raccoons, possums, a dead llama, a chair in the road, and occasionally some deer that are still alive.
Albertson’s job started as a part-time position that evolved into full-time management of roadkill due to the large amounts of dead deer on county roads.
“There probably isn't a road I’ve been on that hasn’t had a car-deer accident,” he said. “There is no rhyme or reason. … The deer are just running out of space.”
According to data from the UM Transportation Research Institute, 2024 had 53,324 reported crashes in Michigan involving deer in total, which was about 20% of all crashes that year.
“Car-deer collisions are very violent affairs. When these deer jump out of the woods, you have a split second to react,” Albertson said.
Sean Zera, the wildlife program coordinator for Oakland County Parks, said there are several obvious signs of deer overabundance. Deer acting like they are not afraid of humans and foliage being eaten are some indicators.
Parks across Michigan have done population surveys since the 1990s and the number of deer has been consistently higher than what’s recommended, Zera said. Ten to 30 deer per square mile is the advisable amount an area can support without damage to the natural habitat, according to state wildlife agencies. Based on recent population surveys, Oakland County parks have densities ranging from 26 to 90 deer per square mile, with over half having a density over 70.
But the DNR’s Brent Rudolph said there is no hard and fast rule for what is the “right” number of deer. Overabundance is determined by the impacts deer are having on our ecosystem, including Michigan roadways.
Albertson said those impacts appear to be happening. “I think that deer are becoming more and more fearless," he said. “You’ll see them along the roads, I mean right on top of busy intersections eating in the grass … you’re honking your horn, flashing your lights, and they just kind of sit there and look at you. You see them in neighborhoods; nothing really spooks them.”
“Our numbers have gone up consistently the past four or five years,” Albertson added. And that only includes the deer that are called in to the road commission. “People aren’t hunting like they did, and I don’t know what’s going to come of all this.”
“Deer are doing damage to their natural habitat, which affects other animals as well as plants,” Zera said. “Things are out of balance right now due to deer overpopulation.”
Why so many deer?
Rudolph said that one common reason for an overabundance of deer is that there are not enough natural predators in Michigan. Additionally, there has been a decline in active hunters across the state. The DNR’s 2023 Michigan Deer Harvest Survey Report indicated that the number of licensed hunters in Michigan has dropped by about a third over the last thirty years.
This decline likely is because of a cultural shift around hunting. Greuin Pierre, who has been hunting in Michigan since he was in high school, said it was once common for kids to hunt. Opening day of rifle season was an unofficial holiday.
“Nowadays, kids don't have any reason to go hunting,” Pierre said. “Many years ago, you had to go hunting if you wanted to eat, but not so much anymore.”
Zera said tribes in Michigan have been hunting deer for thousands of years. “If we aren’t acting as a natural predator, we are contributing to this imbalance,” he said.
Much of Michigan, particularly in the southern end of the state, is great deer habitat, Rudolph added. Mild weather, forested areas, and a lack of predators allow for deer to flourish. Landscaping, gardening, and crop cultivation in urban and suburban areas provide ideal food sources for deer.
“They’ll keep coming back, especially if we keep planting and cultivating,” Rudolph concluded.
How can we solve the deer problem?
Deer-vehicle collisions commonly occur when wildlife habitat borders both sides of the road. The Michigan Department of Transportation is planning to create easier animal crossings, according to Amanda Novak, a resource specialist for MDOT.
Novak co-wrote a grant request for the Wildlife Crossing Hotspots project, which aims to identify the top 20 hotspots where wildlife vehicle collisions are the highest. The federal grant for the project was secured in 2024, and the team has begun identifying hotspots.
Sean Zera found that in the parks he manages, deer culls are the most effective method for reducing the deer population. Oakland County Parks hired USDA sharpshooters with permits from the DNR to implement a cull. Zera said the pilot program was very successful, removing 75 deer from one park.
A Cornell study that analyzed all possible methods for population reduction found that an aggressive approach – in this case, hunting and culling – is most efficient. But there are alternative options for reducing deer population, including surgical sterilization. The process involves shooting a deer with a tranquilizer dart, performing surgery on the deer, and then releasing it back into the wild. Another option is birth control, which also involves shooting the deer with a tranquilizer and then feeding the pills to the deer.
Zera said he is aware deer culling is a controversial topic, and that many people don’t like to see dead deer. The parks’ ultimate goal is to bring the deer numbers down far enough so they no longer have to use sharpshooters and can rely on volunteer hunters again.
“Deer management is a really polarized topic,” Larson acknowledged. But it is not a simple thing to solve, because it takes time to process and see results, he said.
“I think this gives us an opportunity as people to maybe readjust some of our human activities and potentially change our relationship with the way we interact with the natural world.”
