Presentations at the 2017 Southeast Deer Study Group provides optimism and new insights to this revered game animal.

Story and photography by Bob Zaiglin

While in St. Louis, Missouri attending the 40th Southeast Deer Study Group meeting in February, I visited the home of Daniel Boone in Defiance, not 20 minutes outside of St. Louis. While looking out over the Boone estate from the balcony of the two-story rock house, I couldn’t help but think of all the changes that have taken place since that time, particularly when it came to white-tailed deer.
In Boone’s era, people cleared vast amounts of land to grow crops. Today much land suitable for wildlife is developed into rural communities. And although this does not eliminate deer from the landscape, their presence can be hazardous if not destructive at times.
As a result, “at least in some instances”, skilled archers are allowed to pursue deer within those rural deer-infested communities in an attempt to control the deer population. This is a far cry from the days when men like Daniel Boone depended on this protein-rich resource, hunting them in oftentimes difficult if not dangerous conditions.

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