OH, DEER: overrun by herbivores
A mother deer leads her two doe through the parking lot at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club this month.
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Residents take measures to deal with hungry deer
When Chris Garrett makes his morning cycle commute from his Devon Road home to the University of Victoria, he notices something unusual.
“Five to six years ago there weren’t this many deer around,” he said.
An avid gardener, Garrett installed a seven-foot-high mesh net across the width of his back yard to keep the four-legged visitors out.
“I couldn’t figure out how they were getting, in but then I discovered they were bashing in through a cedar fence across the back of the yard.”
The netting has kept the deer out and his previously ravaged vegetable garden of peas, potatoes artichokes, raspberries, strawberries, and beans has been safe.
Resident deer populations have lived in the Ten Mile Point and Uplands neighbourhoods for years, but this year, Oak Bay parks staff have noticed them showing up elsewhere.
“We’ve been seeing them puttering around in south Oak Bay,” said parks head Lorne Middleton.
The deer haven’t done damage in areas where they’ve traditionally been found, such as Uplands Park, but they have been raising the ire of Victoria Golf Club staff.
“For some reason they love tramping across greens and through the bunkers,” said general manager Scott Kolb of five deer living either on the course or nearby.
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