“Look! There’s a deer!” Visitors often exclaim these words in Shenandoah national park-an amazing fact since deer were not here in 1926 when Congress authorized Shenandoah. Years of hunting and other human activity had eliminated them. In 1934, thirteen white-tailed deer were released in the park. Today Shenandoah’s estimated 5,000 deer are descended from those thirteen or others that migrated from surrounding forests.

Shenandoah’s deer illustrate the “recycled” nature of Shenandoah national park, a park still recovering from yeas of human exploitation.

You can help the deer.

Drive slowly. Each year cars kill 60-100 deer on Skyline Drive. You can help reduce these numbers by obeying the 35 mph speed limit.

Don’t feed or approach them. Unnatural foods sicken deer. Hand-fed deer are easy targets for illegal hunters who lure deer close then kill them. Deer drawn to roadsides by feeding are often struck by vehicles. Do not feed any animals in the park.

Pull you car well off the road to view deer along Skyline Drive. Enjoy them from a safe distance.

Rangers strictly enforce these and other rules to protect you and the park.

(caption) Spring Fawns are born Spots remain 3-4 months and provide protective camouflage.

Summer “Velvet” covering a buck’s growing antlers protects bone-nourishing blood vessels.

Marker can be reached from Skyline Drive.

Courtesy hmdb.org

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