COLORADO SPRINGS — Over the past three years, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has been surveying the deer population in Colorado Springs, at the request of the city.

With car accidents and other property damage related to deer, the city wants to know about what the population is, if it is increasing or decreasing and if the population should be managed.

“As far as what numbers we’re looking for, it’s kind of tough to see. We’re still collecting data on that,” said Corey Adler, a district wildlife manager with Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s southeast division.

CPW staff teamed up with volunteers all day on Monday to survey neighborhoods west of I-25. An application on their mobile phones allows them to seamlessly log the location, approximate size, and sex of the deer that goes straight into an agency database.

The survey takes place over several years to get a consistent estimate because in some years, bad weather may turnout less deer than favorable weather, according to Adler.

Rather than tranquilizing, collaring, and tracking the animals in a purely scientific way, Adler said this is a more reasonable option for their objective.

“We’re just driving down the roads and looking for deer and getting an idea of the numbers we see,” Adler explained. “It’s a pretty rough estimate but, it’s the cheapest and the best way we can do right now to get an idea of the number of deer that are in the city.”