A controlled deer hunt on a state-owned coastal reserve in Connecticut: controversies, strategies, and results

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection encountered considerable hostility when it decided to implement a controlled hunt to reduce white-tailed deer numbers on Bluff Point Coastal Reserve, a 326-ha peninsula on the coast of Groton, CT. A hunt held in 1990 had to be stopped because of claims that the herd had been eliminated, and great care was therefore taken to inform the public about the need to reduce the herd before a further controlled hunt took place in Jan 1996. The 1996 hunt also attracted protestors, but it was possible to kill 233 deer.