Do you know what the deadliest animal in America is? You may guess something like a shark, bear or poisonous snake, but the animal you aren’t thinking of is one that probably won’t attack you.

It’s a white-tailed deer. According to the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), deer kill an estimated 120 people annually. This is a surprising disparity from the average two deaths from sharks.

Pennsylvania is near the top of the list of U.S. states for deer population, with an estimated 1.45 million whitetails roaming our woods. Along with such a substantial number of deer, according to a 2017 car insurance report by State Farm, the chances of hitting a deer in Pennsylvania was one in 63. This was an increase from the previous year — and now in 2023 the odds of you hitting a deer is one in 59. This probability could continue to rise along with the overall population. So, what can we do?

We need white-tailed deer hunters, with a strong emphasis on the harvesting of does, or antlerless deer.

One of the main objectives of the Pennsylvania Game Commission is to maintain good hunter participation in the state. This is an easy objective for the Keystone State, as it’s known for whitetail hunters, with an estimated 663,000 hunters participating, only second in the nation to Texas. While this is a massive decline from around 1.3 million hunters in the early 1980s, the sport of deer hunting is still prominent in the state.

The 2022-23 Pennsylvania deer season resulted in roughly 422,960 whitetails harvested, a substantial increase from previous seasons. Of this number, an estimated 164,190 were bucks and 258,770 were antlerless. These numbers are promising, and hopefully will increase this year, as the 2023-24 season is ongoing.

With the still relatively high number of hunters in Pennsylvania, many may not realize the role they play to not only personally aid in managing the deer population, but also supporting the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The PGC’s finance report shows the sale of hunting licenses accounting for roughly 30% of its total revenue — and the majority of this revenue is put into conserving wildlife.

Pennsylvania hunters need to continue purchasing licenses and hunting.

Not only is hunter participation and harvest important, but the type of harvest also matters — specifically, the harvest of does, and some hunters may not realize this importance. Reluctance to shoot a doe can be a common inhibitor for hunters, either because they are going after the anticipated trophy buck, or the assumption that killing a doe is “like killing next year’s fawns.” But what most hunters do not realize is that taking more does can actually increase overall fawn production, which will create a healthier deer population.

With an overpopulation of deer in some parts of the state, habitat loss is a major issue, and the species can struggle to maintain optimal health. Consequently, in some areas does are less healthy, which can result in producing less fawns. This is because of a struggle with milk abundance, greater susceptibility to disease and vulnerability to predators due to their health.

You may be thinking, if they’re unhealthy then they will just die off and the problem will take care of itself, but this is not the case. The number of does in the state is so prominent that even if reproduction struggles the population number will most likely still remain large. And this large number consists of more unhealthy deer.

Now consider a healthy deer population. With the right amount of does and high-quality habitat and vegetation, healthy does are more likely to produce twins, and roughly one in four does could produce triplets. So, if more hunters were to harvest does, slowly, a healthy doe population can begin to thrive and produce multiple healthy fawns.

With all of this mentioned, the PGC’s most recent report has assessed that that conditions have improved for deer and their habitats. But this data is always fluctuating, which is why hunter participation is so important. As the rifle season is upon us, all hunters are encouraged to not hesitate to take a doe. It will benefit your hunting experience in the long run and will produce a healthier population and forest.

Moreover, it will save lives and decrease deer-related deaths, accidents and mishaps.

(Alanna Benson, a graduate of Bradford Area High School, is a student at Dickinson College in Carlisle. Her commentary was originally written for an environmental class and submitted to The Era.)