pdq, I know the white-tailed deer population in the East is much larger than it was before European settlement. Is the same true for deer populations out west where you live?

In the East, not only were the main predators killed off, but felling of forests for farmland created terrific habitat for deer. White-tails can live in forest and browse on twigs and tree tips, but they love open grazing. As our own population has expanded and turned farmlands into suburbia, it is only natural that we encounter more deer. It is harder for deer to avoid us, and we plant all those lovely, tasty hostas and day-lilies for their dining pleasure. Familiarity breeds contempt, or so they say. Deer, like any other creatures, including man, habituate to other species when they have no choice but to live in close proximity.

Coyotes have spread east and their populations are spreading at an amazing rate. The increase in the deer population is probably one good reason for their expansion.