Posted in West Virginia Nature December 22, 2020 by Cristy

130 Years Ago, White-Tail Deer Had Nearly Vanished From West Virginia

Here’s something you might find hard to believe: West Virginia’s white-tail deer population almost went the way of the West Virginia elk and the West Virginia buffalo. That’s right, 130 years ago, white-tail deer had pretty much vanished from West Virginia’s forests. They actually had to be reintroduced from another state! Read on to learn more about the almost-disappearance of the beautiful animal that now thrives to the point, at times, of a nuisance here in West Virginia.

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West Virginia is a wildlife watcher's paradise. With forests, lakes, skies, and meadows filled with all sorts of birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and insects, there's always something to spot, both rare and common!

But when West Virginia was first being explored and settled by European pioneers, over-zealous hunting and fur-trapping caused many native West Virginian species to disappear, or nearly so.

This includes such mammals as wolves, cougars, elk, bison, otters, martens — and yes, believe it or not, deer.

In 1890, an official report stated that the West Virginia Southern White-Tail population was "near zero."

In 1930, the problem had become so pronounced that wildlife officials began to import deer: eight white-tail deer from Michigan were re-homed to the Monongahela National Forest (near Parsons), and then from 1937 to 1939, 17 more were released in the Flatrock-Roaring Plains area of Tucker County.

Now, 130 years after that "near zero" report, we can confidently say that the state's efforts to repopulate white-tail deer most definitely worked.

White-tail deer now thrive in West Virginia — so much so that they have become a common sight nearly state-wide and even somewhat of a nuisance animal in places, especially to drivers and gardeners.

But all in all, we're glad they recovered, unlike most of the other native mammal populations we referenced earlier, that are now never (or only very rarely) spotted in West Virginia.

How do you feel about West Virginia’s plethora of deer? Do you see them often? Did you know how close they came to extinction?

If you found this information interesting, you might also like to read about the work the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources is doing to restore West Virginia’s elk population. The elk haven’t taken off like the deer have yet, but here’s hoping one day they will thrive again here as well!

Address: West Virginia, USA