MAMMALS OF MARYLAND 



171 



This was the case with the Aberdeen herd, where at the time of Fly- 

 ger's study deer were over abundant. 



Habitat and hxibits, — Deer are essentially animals of the "edges," 

 preferring burned- over areas and second-growth timber. They are 

 much less common in heavily forested sections because the dense fo- 

 liage discourages the growth of low forage on which the deer feed. 

 Since much of Maryland today consists of edge habitat, deer are 

 probably even more abundant in the State than they were before the 

 coming of the white man when most of the area was heavily wooded. 



Even though much of Maryland was heavily forested in precolonial 

 and colonial days, white-tailed deer were apparently numerous and 

 supplied a good source of food for early settlers. According to Man- 

 sueti (1950, p. 13) there are countless references to the abundance of 

 deer in early letters and accounts of conditions of the l7th, 18th, and 

 19th centuries. 



Although deer originally occurred in every Maryland county, the 

 species was almost exterminated from about 1900 until the early 1930's. 

 This was due apparently to high hunting pressure and other factors. 

 For example. Browning (1928) estimated that he killed between 1,800 

 and 2,000 deer during his hunting career in western Maryland, and 

 that by 1839 the deer in G^arrett and Allegany counties were beginning 

 to become scarce. Other factors that were responsible for the decline 

 in the deer herds in Maryland include wild dog packs and forest fires, 

 both of which are known to have killed many individuals throughout 

 the State. 



The population increase in recent years has resulted from stocking 

 and intelligent conservation, as well as from the increased "edge" 

 habitat in many areas of the State. Today, the white-tailed deer oc- 

 curs in all sections of Marylaud, and in some places is overabundant. 

 Such an area is the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Hartford County, 

 where according to Flyger (1958, p. 3) counting 100 or 200 deer in a 

 single morning's observation is not at all unusual, and where a distinct 

 browse line is evident in the woods. At the Proving Grounds, also, 

 there have been several instances of mass die-off in recent years, an 

 indication of overpopulation in a particular area. Flyger found that 

 the deer herd in Cecil County, on the other hand, is still rapidly grow- 

 ing and the range there is more understocked than in any other part 

 of the State. 



The Maryland Conservationist (40(1), p. 15, Jan.-Feb., 1963) lists 

 the total deer kill in various Maryland counties for the 1962 season 

 as follows: Garrett 577, Allegany 699, Washington 344, Frederick 

 214, Carroll 114, Howard 12, Montgomery 2, Anne Arundel 5 Calvert 

 93, Prince Georges 12, Charles 208, St. Marys 33, Baltimore 95, Cecil 



