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[[underlined]] Management of Front Royal Deer Population [[/underlined]]

In 1982 the National Zoological Park of the Smithsonian Institution proposed that a regulated and controlled public deer hunt be employed to thin out the overabundant white-tailed deer population at the Zoo's Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia. Even though such a regulated public hunt has proven to be an efficient and effective deer management solution elsewhere, many considered it an inappropriate solution for the National Zoological Park of the Smithsonian Institution. For many, hunting, even as a conservation strategy, evoked an image contrary to the Smithsonian's dedication to the preservation and conservation of wildlife. 

Several alternative solutions have been examined, the most satisfactory of which involves: (1) the construction of a second fence around intensively used areas of the Center; and (2) the removal of portions of the perimeter fence which surrounds the 3,000-acre property. This alternative also has the advantage of being relatively low cost. The second fence will serve as a second line restraint to any of the Center's exotic animals which escape from their primary enclosures and, at the same time, will create a barrier to the spreading of disease to exotic animals by the native white-tailed deer. The new second fence will be a 13-wire, eight feet high, high tension wire fence. 

The perimeter fence around the 3,000 acres of the Center is six feet high in the least utilized wilderness areas of the property and eight feet high in other areas. The plan calls for removing 100-foot sections of the fence in areas where it is only six feet high. The fencing in these areas where it is only six feet high. The fencing in these area would be replaced by a high tension wire fence no more than four feet high. Since the new fence can be easily jumped by deer, the dense population on the Center ground would be more free to disperse. Given the greater availability