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VESTAL, N.Y. -- Binghamton University will conduct deer culling during the winter break to reduce the population of deer on and near campus.

The chair of the Committee for University Environment says currently there is a herd of 60 to 70 deer, a population five to 10 times more than the environment can handle and the animals are destroying the forest surrounding BU.

To deal with the problem, a group of sharp shooters has been hired to cut the population down to about 15 deer. The university found this method to be safer than letting hunters shoot the deer and less expensive than using what the committee chair calls experimental birth control methods or trying to move the herd somewhere else.

"There aren't very many places that would want to take them, second place it's actually not legal at the moment. The DEC prohibits it. They actually permit it, but they say they're not issuing permits now because of danger of transmission of deer diseases around the state,” said Julian Shepherd, Committee for University Environment Chair.

Shepherd says moving a herd is actually detrimental to the deer. They often do not acclimate to the new environment and tend to starve themselves.