ANN ARBOR, MI - After sterilizing 54 female deer in Ann Arbor last winter by surgically removing their ovaries, the city's ovariectomy experiment is starting up again this week.

The goal is to sterilize up to 26 more deer, and they may be getting yoga mats to help keep comfy during their recovery.

The city's contractor, Connecticut-based White Buffalo Inc., is in town to begin the second phase of sterilizations starting Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 2, and possibly continuing into the weekend.



That's to be followed by a lethal cull with a goal of killing up to 250 deer between Jan. 8 and Jan. 31.

The city is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to get a handle on what city officials consider to be a deer overpopulation problem. City officials say deer browsing is adversely impacting nature areas and people's private landscaping and gardens, and they're also concerned about deer-vehicle crashes.

This week, White Buffalo will be darting and capturing up to 26 female deer in up to three zones in the city.

As was the case last year, the deer will be taken to a makeshift operating room inside a shed at the city-owned Huron Hills Golf Course where they'll be cut open and have their ovaries removed.



The surgeries are to be carried out by licensed veterinarians with the help of assistants, but community volunteers are expected to help with lifting and transporting the deer, monitoring them after surgery and upon return to the wild, as well as other tasks.



The operation is scheduled to last from about 3 p.m. to 5 a.m. each day this week.



Bob McGee, president of Ann Arbor Residents for Non-Lethal Deer Management, is serving as volunteer coordinator for the second year in a row, working closely with White Buffalo.



McGee said the prospect of subzero overnight temperatures is a concern and those helping with the recovery side of the operation are going to be very careful with the deer when returning them to the wild, laying down mats for them in the cold snow until they're able to stand up and walk away on their own.



He told White Buffalo he bought some yoga mats and the joke now is "Well, of course, Ann Arbor deer get yoga mats."



He said White Buffalo also brought camping mats with more insulation, so they might be using those, or perhaps both.

The city of Ann Arbor released this map showing areas where deer management activities will take place in January 2018. The red areas show the zones where nonlethal sterilizations are to occur from Jan. 2-7. The orangish yellow area is the University of Michigan's Nichols Arboretum, which is expected to close select days for lethal shooting. The green areas show city parks and the blue areas show UM and Concordia University properties, all of which will be closed from 3 p.m. to midnight from Jan. 8-31 for lethal shooting.

With the extra-cold temperatures, McGee said, there's also a chance the deer White Buffalo's darting team will be seeking will be hunkered down, trying to stay warm, and the deer might not be on the move to get food as much, so that's another factor that could affect how efficiently things go this week.

McGee said as many as 30-plus volunteers ranging from college students to retirees might be helping out this week. He said more than 50 people applied and priority was given to Ann Arbor residents.

According to information released by the city, White Buffalo's wildlife professionals will locate female deer and dart them with tranquilizer darts equipped with tracking devices.



The city says that will be done from marked, stationary vehicles on public roadways and at bait stations at designated sites.



Unlike firearms, the pneumatic darting guns have a limited range of 30-40 feet.



The entire sterilization process, from initial darting to release, takes about one hour per deer.



According to the city, it is unlikely that residents will notice the actual darting activities because, while some darting will occur at designated bait stations in the late afternoon, most work will be done during nighttime hours when deer are most active.



The city says residents' daily routines will not need to change during the sterilization operation and there will be no closures of parks.



All sterilized female deer are to be fitted with numbered ear tags, while one mature female in each group is radio-collared to track migration patterns and assess survival rates.



White Buffalo's sharpshooters are to avoid shooting the deer with ear tags during the lethal cull phase.

Ann Arbor received approval from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to start doing surgical sterilizations of female deer last winter as a research experiment, combining nonlethal population-control methods with lethal population control. The DNR is allowing the sterilization experiment to continue this year, though a Republican lawmaker from northern Michigan is now proposing legislation to try to put an end to the practice, arguing it's not effective.



White Buffalo, which has conducted sterilization experiments in several communities across the United States, argues it can be effective and Ann Arbor could see a 10-20 percent annual reduction in deer population through attrition in neighborhoods where sterilization is done. The experiment in Ann Arbor is the first of its kind for Michigan and the DNR has not issued any other sterilization permits.

Working in a new third sterilization zone is allowed under the DNR permit for Ann Arbor this week, but the city's priority is to first obtain 98 percent sterilization in the two other zones where 54 deer were sterilized last year.



Of the 54 deer sterilized in Ann Arbor last winter, one was found in a state of distress afterward and was euthanized.

A total of 315 deer were detected in Ann Arbor during a population count conducted in early February 2017.



That was more than 50 percent higher than the number of deer spotted during the last count a year earlier.



A report from White Buffalo last March estimated detection rates for the 2017 count ranged from 28 percent to 60 percent, depending on the area, and overall it estimated there were about 450 deer in wards 1 and 2, which include the north and east sides of the city. That's where the city has focused its population-reduction efforts.