With urban deer a growing problem on Vancouver Island, changes to this year’s hunting regulations may offer some relief.
One Island-wide change proposed by the province is to prohibit deliberate feeding of deer or other hooved mammals within 200 metres of a dwelling, school or playground. Deer in urban settings, particularly on the Island, are often involved in motor vehicle collisions and may directly attack people, especially when protecting their fawns. Feeding wildlife unnatural types of food can have negative consequences to the animals.
A similar restriction in the Cariboo region has had success, reducing negative wildlife interactions through education first, and fines second.
Other Island-specific regulations will protect Roosevelt elk by amalgamating hunting seasons while allowing more hunting opportunities, and will also open up more hunting for non-native pheasants. Currently it’s only legal to hunt male pheasants but opening it up to females as well will help control the population, which was introduced to the Island more than 100 years ago for hunting.
People are invited to comment until March 22, you will need a free BCeID to leave comments but no registration is required to view the proposed regulation changes.
