Cape Girardeau's city park deer hunts underway

The City of Cape Girardeau has closed four of its parks to visitors as their annual urban deer hunt gets underway.

Cape Girardeau’s managed deer hunt is one of over 100 similar programs across Missouri. The goal is to prevent overpopulation, starvation, and reduce the spread of diseases in the city's deer population. Many cities with urban hunts report reductions in deer-vehicle collisions, and reduction in damage to vegetation in parks.

Forty adult hunters were selected through a state lottery system and had to attend specific meetings on how to hunt in the park. A total of 120 deer can be harvested only by bow, and only from elevated stands so that arrows are shot in a downward trajectory to limit their flight distance.

Harvest limits will increase from two deer with an antlerless deer first to three deer with an antlerless deer first, and a maximum of one antlered deer harvested.

The parks will remain closed until the deer hunt ends on December 23.