A study tracking hundreds of deer across Durham and Orange counties found vehicle collisions are a leading cause of death for urban deer, prompting researchers to look for new ways to reduce conflicts between deer and people.
North Carolina is home to about 1 million white-tailed deer after decades of work to restore the population following overhunting and habitat loss.
To better understand how development is affecting deer, teams from the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and N.C. State University tracked 314 deer from early 2022 through April 2025, from urban areas near downtown Durham to rural farmland…