Portable drive-net for capturing urban white-tailed deer

Abstract

Increasing white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) numbers in urban environments is a management problem for both natural resource agencies and urban residents because of economic (e.g., deer-vehicle collisions) and ecological (e.g., ornamental and native vegetation damage) issues associated with deer overabundance. Reducing deer num- bers using nonlethal control procedures often requires the safe (i.e., low mortality) cap- ture of urban white-tailed deer. We describe the use of a portable drive-net to capture urban white-tailed deer. We attached nylon drive-nets of various lengths, heights, and mesh sizes to an anchor (e.g., fencepost, T-post, tree) and placed them neatly on the ground. Persons on foot would drive deer toward the drive-net while one person would pull the net vertically to coincide with deer arrival. From June 1998-October 2003, we captured 76 white-tailed deer (25 M, 51 F) in Texas and Florida using the portable drive- net. No deer mortalities were recorded, and <10 deer suffered small cuts and scrapes. The major advantages of our drive-net (i.e., simplicity, portability, selectivity, low cost, quietness, and non-invasiveness) make the technique useful for capturing urban white- tailed deer.