HELENA, Mont. — Helena police are seeing significantly fewer deer during this year's annual urban deer count, along with signs that the animals may be returning to more natural behaviors around people.
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Deer are a common sight on Mount Helena, but they frequently make their way down the mountain and into neighborhoods across the city. Each fall, Helena police officers head into those neighborhoods at night, using spotlights to count deer and help estimate the city's urban population.
This year, those nightly counts looked much different.
"This year, our numbers are down significantly," City of Helena Urban Wildlife Officer Sean McCarthy said.
Last October, data collected by the city resulted in an estimate of roughly 97 deer per square mile. McCarthy said Helena has more recently been closer to about 60 deer per square mile, although this year's official population estimate has not yet been finalized.
Officers finished this fall's count last week after spending three nights a week conducting surveys over a two-week period. McCarthy said officers were seeing roughly half as many deer on some nights compared with last year.
"Just from what we were counting per night, I can say that we are dramatically down compared to last year and the year before that even," McCarthy said.
There is still an important variable, however. Colder weather is only now beginning to settle into Helena, meaning some deer that typically move down from higher elevations may not have reached the city yet.
Deer are more spread out across Helena
The difference isn't limited to the number of deer officers are seeing.
"The deer are spread out a little more evenly this year than clustered as bad as they were last year," McCarthy said. "We're not seeing as large of groups, either."
Officers are generally seeing groups of three or four deer at a time. Higher concentrations remain in neighborhoods around the Capitol and southwest Helena near the base of Mount Helena. Officers are also beginning to see whitetail deer near the Henderson Street area.
Perhaps more encouraging to wildlife officers is how some of those deer are behaving.
McCarthy described deer encountered during this year's count as more skittish and likely to react to officers, people and even the spotlight being used during the count.
That's the response officers want to see.
"We're finally starting to see generation deer acting like they're supposed to be instead of generation deer that have been habituated to human behavior," McCarthy said.
McCarthy credits some of the change to the city's hazing efforts, along with educating residents about how their actions can attract or habituate deer.
"We're seeing a lot more resident support and community support, which I do absolutely contribute to some of these reverting back to natural behavior with these animals," he said.
That includes discouraging residents from leaving out food or other attractants that could bring deer into neighborhoods.
Halloween decorations can pose another problem
With Halloween approaching, McCarthy said residents can also help by paying attention to where they place decorations.
Strings, ropes, webbing and other decorations can be difficult for deer to see, particularly at night. If residents know deer regularly move through part of their yard, McCarthy recommends keeping decorations closer to the house and away from those travel routes.
The problem isn't hypothetical.
"I know we have a deer running around the valley somewhere that's already got a spider and some orange webbing wrapped up in its antlers," McCarthy said.
In many cases, decorations caught on a deer may simply be an annoyance that the animal eventually rubs off. Residents should pay closer attention, however, if the material appears to restrict the animal's movement or ability to eat or drink.
Helena police have now turned over this year's count data to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, which will use the numbers to calculate the official population estimate.
For McCarthy, the lower nightly counts, smaller groups and changes in behavior are encouraging signs that efforts to reduce conflicts between people and wildlife may be having an impact.
