Love is in the air — and not much else is on the minds of white-tailed deer.

It's peak breeding season, and the animals aren't paying much attention to potentially deadly objects like cars. That means it's also peak season for accidents between deer and cars.

One of the first occurred Sunday night when a driver on Salem Street in Swampscott called police to report a deer ran into her car, causing at least $1,000 in damage. A second caller reported the deer had died.

"It's all about hormones," said Marion Larson, an educational biologist with MassWildlife. "(Bucks) aren't thinking about too much else, so consequently they're more focused on finding a female than on a possible hazard to their health, including the business of cars."

That leads to a spike in the number of deer and car collisions around this time of year.

By late fall, deer have had an entire summer's worth of feeding and are in the best condition of the year, said Sonja Christensen, a deer biologist with MassWildlife.

As deer search for their mates, they are moving over greater areas and are more likely to cross paths with humans, she said.

Christensen said the North Shore boasts about 20 deer per square mile of forested area — deer habitat. The goal for the region is much lower, about eight deer per square mile of forested area.

Too many deer increase the likelihood of human interaction in the form of car collisions like the one in Swampscott, pillaged garden plants — the hosta particularly — and greater public safety risks because of the presence of ticks.

The deer can also have a negative effect on the ecosystem, basically eating themselves out of house and home.

Christensen said the animals have a penchant for pumpkins and a hankering for young Christmas trees, costing farmers and amateur gardeners a lot of money.

While the North Shore may not be the first place that comes to mind for deer, the creatures do very well in suburban areas, she said.

"They eat a lot of garden-variety plants," Christensen said. "They don't necessarily have to rely on the forest for food."

MassWildlife tries to promote hunting to curb the deer population, but that can be a challenge in more densely populated areas like the North Shore. Still, last year, 2,053 deer were hunted in the zone that includes the North Shore — the second-highest number in the state, Christensen said.

Hunters are unlikely to bring the populations down enough, however, to keep a buck from prancing across the road in search of a doe.

Drivers will have to be on the lookout for deer in headlights for the next couple of weeks as the breeding season comes to a close.