The Town of Shelter Island took six deer in July 2006 to test their meat for permethrin (which is sprayed on more than 300 properties every 28 days throughout the summer) and also for the DEC to test them for chronic wasting disease. The veterinarian and the hunters involved were both struck by the number of ticks on the deer (about 45 black legged ticks per square inch throughout the head area) and the extremes to which this particular deer had gone to to try to eliminate the ticks from his ear, almost severing it.
The significance of this picture is that humans usually only see deer closeup in the cold winter months when ticks have gone to ground and are not feeding on the deer. Now we know that ticks are not benign nuisances to the deer, but serious threats to their health and welfare.
The picture below is a closeup of the infestation of ticks and shows an area which he had scraped raw
