Deer crashes from January through April are currently the highest since 2017; warm weather may be a factor
This is a graph of the deer crashes recorded at https://transportal.cee.wisc.edu/partners/community-maps/crash/search/BasicSearch.do:
January through April deer crashes from 2010 to 2023
A link to the graph: https://i.imgur.com/IsR0DpA.png
What could be causing the rise in deer crashes?
The DNR says, https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/WildlifeHabitat/cardeer.html:
Many collisions also occur during May and June during spring fawning, when yearling deer are seeking out new home ranges.
The secondary peak around May is explained by spring dispersal of deer due to the green-up period and female movement to fawning grounds (Puglisi et al., 1974), increased use of highway rights-of-way for forage (Bellis and Graves, 1971) and the use of roadside pools as mineral licks (Wiles and Weeks, 1986). Etter et al. (2002) blamed inexperienced yearlings, abandoned by their mothers for the DVA peak in late spring.
and on the next page, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Klaus-Hacklaender/publication/280085867_Steiner_W_et_al_2014/links/55a7885208ae0b4e87122a7b/Steiner-W-et-al-2014.pdf#page=8 , it says
Only one reference addresses the influence of lunar phases on white-tail deer accidents. Pierce (2010) found highest numbers of DVAs during the full moon in the gestation and fawning season.
In Europe, for roe deer, https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/160439 says
Spring weather was found to affect the detailed timing of spring MVCs in Finland: collisions occurred earlier during warm springs. In addition, as the beginning of the growing season has moved to an earlier date in the last two decades, so has the spring MVC peak.
Is temperature a factor here? This is a graph going back only to 2018. The weather station in Ephraim had a complete set of monthly average temperatures, but the last two months were not given yet. https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datasets/GSOM/stations/GHCND:USC00472626/detail.
Monthly deer crashes and monthly average temperature
A link to the graph: https://i.imgur.com/UiGl4kX.png
Looking at this, it seems that the warmer temperatures as of late could be causing the rise in the January to April deer crashes. Yet I did not look at any of the other factors.
This is the table for it:
table for the line graph
And also the table for the bar graph:
table for the bar graph