Rapid growth of deer populations, the overharvest of bucks, and the underharvest of does have created overpopulated deer herds with highly unbalanced sex ratios across the Southeast. These conditions result in a large number of female deer and a limited number of older aged bucks.
Deer overpopulation causes damage to forest vegetation and agricultural crops, threatens human health because of deer-vehicle collisions, and creates unhealthy deer as a result of inadequate food supplies. Because antler development increases dramatically with age, lack of older bucks translates into fewer large-antlered bucks available for harvest.
Click on the link for a publication called Hunter's Guide to Aging and Judging Live White Tailed Deer in the Southeast-http://extension.msstate.edu/.../POD_P2206_AgingDeer-WEB.pdf
Original source can be found here.
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