It's snipers vs. deer in Washington DC

The authorities managing Washington, DC's Rock Creek park could decide as early as this week whether to activate a deer management plan that calls for killing 80% of the white-tailed deer, or more than 300 of the animals living in the area, over a two to three-year period.

It's not exactly a comforting scenario: government sharpshooters, equipped with night-vision goggles and silencers, deployed in the dead of night in a favorite Washingtonian park for the express purpose of slaughtering hundreds of white-tailed deer.

Without such extreme steps, environmental experts say the forest would be eaten into oblivion in a matter of years. There are 80 deer per square mile of park; new shoots and delicate plants don't have a chance. The park is also experiencing severe erosion, because of the lack of regrowth.

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