As Habitat Thins, Deer Often Die : Survival: Urban sprawl brings conflict between animals and suburbanites, with deer destroying gardens and facing danger on roadways.

Call them urban deer. Driven by increasing hillside development and persistent drought conditions, they venture into an unlikely and often unwelcome environment, from busy streets and residential gardens in the San Fernando Valley to the pounding surf of Malibu.

Their search for food and water brings them into almost daily contact with residents of communities that border the canyons and foothills of the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountains, particularly in areas where new development is displacing existing wildlife.

Lost and panicked deer have been injured and killed on canyon roads. They have been spotted along Ventura Boulevard in Encino and outside upscale restaurants and chic boutiques, struggling to find their way back to the mountains, animal control officers said.

They drink from back yard swimming pools, feast on roses and begonias, dart down quiet streets and stroll along lush country-club fairways.

“The ultimate conflict between mountain development and the wilderness,” said Rob Glushon, president of the Encino Property Owners Assn., who observed four deer during a recent round of golf at the El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana.

Deer have always inhabited the area mountains. State and local officials estimate that 9,000 live in the vast and undeveloped ranges of the San Gabriel Mountains and anywhere from several hundred to more than 1,000 are in the Santa Monicas and Santa Susanas.

The animals have been turning up near hillside residences for years. But California Department of Fish and Game officers say more of them appear to be venturing into urban areas as new developments invade their territory and the drought stretches into its third year.

“A deer is like any other animal,” said Jon Fischer, a wildlife biologist with Fish and Game. “It will go where food is easiest to get, and if I water my back yard and it is full of succulent flowers, a deer would be crazy to stay 400 yards away and eat dry grass. So they are overcoming their fear of people and coming into back yards.”

Enchanted by their beauty and grace, hillside dwellers often welcome the deer--initially. But the novelty wears off once the animals start eating expensive flowers and ravaging gardens that took years to create.

State and local officials offer homeowners little consolation. They can’t move the deer, they say, because that would over-populate existing animal ranges and lead to starvation and disease.

In addition, they say, deer adapt poorly to new areas. When 200 were moved from Angel Island in San Francisco Bay to Napa County 10 years ago, 80% wound up dead on local roads within three weeks, most of them victims of traffic accidents, said Larry Sitton, wildlife management program supervisor for Fish and Game.

Animal control officers, who warn that deer can be dangerous if cornered, recommend using commercial repellents or lion droppings to keep them away. But homeowners who have tried those remedies say they offer only a temporary reprieve.

“We have no ivy left,” said Susan Gottsegen, who lives on Coronet Drive in Encino. “They ate the whole hillside. It’s barren. They come three and four at a time, and they’re very brazen. They come right down and walk on the street. I have a German shepherd, and they’re not even afraid of her. She barks at them and they just keep grazing. They’ve become domesticated.

“The first time my neighbors saw one, they said, ‘Look, it’s Bambi,’ ” Gottsegen recalled. “They thought it was so beautiful--until Bambi started eating all their flowers.”

Gottsegen has lived on Coronet Drive for 26 years. She said she never had a problem until grading began for the 178-home Caballero Canyon development at Reseda and Ventura boulevards. She suspects that the deer have come from there, seeking new shelter and food sources.

“They have nowhere else to turn,” said Sonia Thompson, program manager for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, who predicts the deer population in Los Angeles will ultimately perish as their habitat is destroyed.

“If they have no natural vegetation in the canyons and no water sources, and they go down to gardens where people put out poison . . . that is sort of a death warrant right there. Then there are domestic dogs that chase them into the road where they are hit by cars.”

About 18 deer are killed by motorists each year in the West Valley area, said Irene Malloy, president of the Marine and Wildlife Rescue Station in Agoura Hills, who helped prepare a 1988 study on animal fatalities for the conservancy.

But the number could be even higher. In September, 10 deer were hit and killed by cars in the West Valley area served by the county’s animal care and control center in Agoura, said Lt. Martin Broad of the West Valley Animal Care and Control Center.

Most are traveling between the Santa Susana and Santa Monica mountains, where only one wildlife corridor remains, she said. The deer grow confused and venture into oncoming traffic. One died two weeks ago on Agoura Road in the type of incident that occurs so frequently that Malloy has started calling the drag “death row for deer.”

“The desecration of deer in this canyon is pitiful,” said Malloy, who lives in Liberty Canyon. “It’s tragic.”

There also have been problems along Mulholland Drive, Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Beverly Glen and Laurel Canyon boulevards. “Deer live in there,” said Dennis Kroeplin, a wildlife officer with the city-operated West Valley Animal Care and Control Center. “They have trails that cross those roads, that were there before the roads. You find deer-crossing signs to caution drivers, but they still get killed.”

State game warden John Hernandez said he recently helped rescue a buck that was chased by stray dogs all the way to the ocean in Malibu. “It wouldn’t come near the shore,” Hernandez said. “We had to get everyone back so it felt confident returning to the hills.”

Andy Nieman never had deer problems at his Encino hills home until last spring, when his dog died. Now six deer frequent his back yard.

“They’ve eaten hundreds of dollars of begonias,” Nieman said. “You feel sorry for them. The poor deer, they’re hungry.”

Nieman took the advice of animal control officers, drove to the Wildlife Waystation in Little Tujunga and picked up lion droppings that he placed around his property. It worked--for two weeks. Then the deer were back.