Wildlife-human conflicts growing

On Memorial Day, Gail Kass went into her Avenues yard to put sunflower seeds in the bird feeder. But instead of a grosbeak or blue jay, she saw a large deer.

"I stopped and he seemed to run to the back of the house," she said. She went inside to tell her husband, Tom, then went out again. Apparently the deer was gone. She filled the bird feeder, but then, "all of a sudden I saw him.

"He was still under a tree, watching me. As soon as I stopped he ran out the way he had come in, which was our back gate." The gate opens to a fast, busy street, she noted, and "he was just lucky that he didn't run into a car."

Also, she added, it was lucky for motorists that the deer didn't cause a collision.

It was one of the more benign human-animal conflicts that have been happening with greater regularity. Three women were killed by Florida alligators last month. In April, a mountain lion bit and clawed a 7-year-old boy hiking in Colorado with his family. A black bear attacked a family in Tennessee the same month, killing a 6-year-old girl.

What's causing conflicts like these? Has wildlife decided to go on a rampage against the human race?

"It's a combination of three or four different reasons," said Mike Conover, professor in Utah State University's forest, range and wildlife services department. "In the case of alligators, wolves, bears, all those wildlife populations are much higher than they used to be."

Time was, if a settler came upon a wolf or other large predator . . . blam!

"We drove those populations to very, very low levels," he said.

Wolves were exterminated in the lower 48 states, while alligators and grizzly bears were driven onto endangered species status.

"But now all of those populations have come back." Not only have they been protected, but wildlife biologists have found ways to make many of the predator species thrive.

"At the same time, human populations have increased," said Conover, who is with the Jack H. Berryman Institute. The institute, based at USU and Mississippi State University, seeks to minimize animal-human conflicts.

Adding to the potential for trouble, predators are moving into suburban areas. "As deer move into urban areas, the mountain lions are behind them, and they're coming into areas where people live.

"They're not out in the wilderness areas anymore. They're on the fringes of urban areas."

Why would deer go into neighborhoods?

New developments have been built on the herds' traditional winter ranges. Also, deer, geese and other wildlife "have found that urban areas are pretty nice places to live," Conover said.