The City of Pittsburgh's 2024-2025 deer control program resulted in just under 200 deer harvested.
The program, which began in 2023, seeks to tamp down the city's deer population through archery from September through January at five of the city's parks.
This season marked an expansion for the program.
The inaugural year it was implemented, the city limited the archery to Frick and Riverview Parks. With Schenley, Highland, and Emerald View Parks added this year, a total of 199 deer were taken.
Of those 199, 88 came from the program's two flagship parks, down from the 108 culls at those same parks last year.
Professor Jeremy Weber of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs has studied the program, and said it's hard to conclude whether this means the program is working.
"There's a lot of uncertainty about how fast a population grows when it's already at a high level," he said. "And it's hard to measure the impact of hunting on populations when a deer might have been killed some other way."
Anecdotally, however, he said he has seen a positive trend since the program's inception.
"In prior years, my arborvitaes have been hit hard by the deer. I haven't seen that yet, which is a small data point, but a hopeful sign nonetheless."
Ninety-two of this year's deer were donated to local food banks, good for a total of nearly 15,000 meals.
