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CALVIN R. PECK, JR.
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Tab 9
Star-News (Wilmington, NC)
February 13, 2011
Bald Head Island considers Bambi birth control
Author: Ken Little
Bald Head Island won’t cull its white-tailed deer herd this year, but it will definitely do so in
2012.
Instead of hiring someone to reduce the deer population with firearms, village officials are
considering a dart-administered form of contraception that prevents females from becoming
pregnant.
“There has to be some way of taking down the population next year,” Village Manager Calvin
Peck said.
The island’s deer population stands at about 180, what Peck calls the “upper limit” for what the
Bald Head Island Conservancy considers a viable number of animals. A population above 180
would cause excessive damage to the maritime forest and create health-related hardships on the
animals, Peck said.
The “immune-contraception” program developed at N.C. State is still in the exploratory stage but
may be well suited to conditions on Bald Head Island. A few outside deer might swim there, but
the natives aren’t going anywhere, Peck said.
“They’ve got it good here, and they recognize that,” he said.
Hunting is banned on Bald Head Island, whose affluent residents occupy about 2,000 acres of the
12,000-acre island.
The remainder is set aside as nature preserves, and white-tailed deer have taken full advantage of
the situation.
“It’s a healthy population. They’re doing well. They’re very active,” Peck said.
It’s not uncommon for a doe to give birth to twins on the island, an indication of the good forage
available there.
The survival rate in eastern North Carolina for deer is about 0.8 fawns per doe, said Robbie
Norville, coastal region supervising biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
Culling is rare in most sections of the coast, but it becomes necessary when hunting is not
allowed, Norville said.
“There are some gated communities operating under depredation permits and have hunters come
in,” he said. That’s the case with Bald Head Island, which conducted six herd culls between 2000
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