Rutgers' experience is part of statewide problem: The deer population in New Jersey has more than doubled in 20 years
An early morning visitor to the Alexander Library on Monday wasn’t looking to check out books. She was a deer that had wandered into the library’s front yard near the College Avenue entrance. Apparently becoming startled, she bolted through a library window and ran across the reference room, finally cowering behind a large green plant along a window facing George Street.
Rutgers’ run-in with this deer is symptomatic of a statewide deer overpopulation problem. The number of deer in New Jersey has increased to an estimated 200,000, more than double the population twenty years ago
The animal’s presence was discovered around 7 a.m., when a library staff member reporting for work spotted the shattered lower pane of glass to the left of the entrance.
University police officers and emergency services personnel responded and library staff closed the room to patrons – a major inconvenience because it houses the reference desk as well as several public computer stations. The rest of the library remained open and accessible.
The police also notified Clint Burgher, research farm director in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.
“I had just pulled in to a parking lot on the Busch Campus for a morning meeting when I got the call on my cell phone,” said Burgher, who immediately left for College Avenue. Burgher and his colleague Susan Becker, who manages a captive deer herd on the Cook Campus for teaching and research purposes, prepared animal tranquilizers which they were prepared to inject using a nine-foot pole syringe. But after witnessing the deer’s temperament and injuries, they felt it would be too hazardous to proceed.
A call to Middlesex County animal control led to the dispatch of personnel from the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife. They are often called upon to deal with much bigger animals – the lettering on the side of their truck read “Bear Response.” They were able to shoot a tranquilizing dart from a safe distance and sedate the deer, later carrying her out to their truck.
Regrettably, the deer suffered significant damage to her right hind leg when she broke through the window, and could not be released back into the wild. The wildlife personnel made the decision to euthanize her.