Last year's long winter. How has it affected wildlife in your area?

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After a week of deer hunting this last week, I am stunned by the low numbers of wildlife population in my area. It is drastically different than any other previous year I have been hunting here (10 years). Lower moose/deer/grouse numbers in Central Ontario was already a foregone conclusion for me, but not to the extent that I saw last week. I didn't even see any hare tracks in the snow, where there should have been plenty. There are no increases in the number of predators in my area, so I can only think of last harsh winter we had. If anything, the native predators (mainly wolves and lynx) will follow and their populations will be decimated this coming winter for lack of food.

No expert here, but I suspect once these numbers reach the wildlife management people, some sort of moratorium or drastic cuts to the number of tags for everything will be coming next year.

How are things in your hunt area?
 
WT numbers are about half of last years, not seeing many young ones if any in with the mature does either so I'm thinkin the wolves and coyotes had a good spring cleaning up what starved thru febuary and march...

Elk and moose numbers are way up, every cow I have seen this year had a calf and been seeing cow elk every way I turn... Now if a bull elk would just step out where I can see it or a calf moose where I'm legal to shoot it I could post a meat quality review for all of you :p
 
Deer is way down in WMU 60 (Ontario). A lot of the things they normally eat, like crab/farmed apples were a failure. They must have been weak from the winter and cototes took them down. We'd normally see dozens of does.. maybe 4 all week this year. Time to take up coyote hunting. We would also hear shots all day.. almost none this year. Deer population I way down..
 
In my area of Sask. Numbers are definitely down and by quite a bit. Further north they are still not too bad. I totally lucked out this year on opening day of ML season with the one and only deer coming out was a decent buck. Archery season only showed two does. Rifle season starts on the 20th so we'll see. On the positive there is still no snow to speak of and last year we had snow a month earlier. Perhaps we are going into a dry winter cycle for the next few years. If that is the case numbers will recover nicely. Let's hope.
 
in the area north of London i would venture that the deer population has been spared the effects of last winter as quite a bit of standing crop both corn and soybeans were left in the field over winter . a hunting party that had eleven tags managed to fill ten of them hunting this past week. i believe no till corn fields provide a lot of feed for deer in our area as i often see them feeding in these fields in the winter . i had a very nice buck cross the road in front of me in broad daylight in a river valley , very likely pushed out of cover by hunters .
 
In much of my hunting area the whitetail and mulies have been devastated. I've one reasonably good pocket where the populations held quite a bit better, mostly because we fed them last winter. There is a pronounced shortage of fawns and bucks over 3-4 years old on the cameras. We saw about 25 on two stands yesterday but nothing coming or going on the two hour trip. That should be good for a couple hundred.
 
NE Alberta, very close to Saskatchewan border. Mulie and WT numbers way down. Predator pressure way high. A month ago my favorite hunting spot was plagued by a large BB. Since recent hibernation time it appears that coyotes have replaced this apex predator. A few ruffies here and there, but not as many as last year. I think two years ago was their peak. Rabbit numbers appear to be way down also. Lowest I've seen since I can remember.
 
I would say our whitetail herd took it on the chin last winter! Not seeing many close to home in the Red River valley and the few trips I have made to the interlake this muzzleloader season have been uneventful with few sighted and also finding last years winter kills!
 
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I'm planning on doing some coyote hunting this year with a buddy of mine to help the deer out this winter. Never done it before so we have some learning to do. I'm hearing low numbers for deer in 58,59,60 in ontario.
 
Hunted two properties. Both in southern ontario. One was good but deer populations down another one had standing corn last year I shot a six pointer and owner and partner shot a 9 pointer. Deer populations are down abit but still a good season. No wild apples this year . Winter in Ontario did have an effect with a lot of dry does. Just hope this winter is not as bad.
 
Apparently because of the harsh winter cull its antlers only for white tail this year in Manitoba, that said in my small chunk of the world its the best deer numbers I have seen in nearly 10 years, went for a little walk last night in my bush and spoked up at least a half a dozen, mostly does but at least one was a buck. We had some bad fires the other year and I suspect we got a lot of new deer that relocated from the US as I am seeing some very distinctly different deer. It probably also helps that my neighbour was aggressively trapping last winter, caught 4 timbers and 9 yotes. Nonetheless, it seems weird all over , I caught a cougar on my game cam a couple of weeks ago. There have never been cougars in this area at least that I know of. Neighbours saw a solitary Moose walk through their yard last week. They have been extinct in the area for over 30 years.
 
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I live on central Vancouver island and I'm seeing deer all the time I just look out my window we have 6 does and 2 bucks that have taken up residence in my cul de sac haha. Haven't got out hunting yet been to busy but I hear that there are definitely deer around. If I don't get out I'll have to get a crossbow just kidding my daughter would kill me haha
 
Csik boatguy said:
I live on central Vancouver island and I'm seeing deer all the time I just look out my window we have 6 does and 2 bucks that have taken up residence in my cul de sac haha. Haven't got out hunting yet been to busy but I hear that there are definitely deer around. If I don't get out I'll have to get a crossbow just kidding my daughter would kill me haha
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Does your severe winters out there affect the deer population?
 
Vancouver Island has no Coyotes, and recently there are 5 Grizzly...all male, that swam over via the Gulf Islands from the Mainland. The apex predator would be the cougar, and black bears take some of the coyote role. Northern and Central island can get winter conditions, simply pushing game to lower levels where snow levels are light and overall the winter is mild with as much rain as snow. Not at all comparable to Ontario.

Personally i hit the Merritt, Logan Lake, and Cache Creek areas last week. Merritt is high elevation, and the game seemed to have already moved to lower elevations near Princeton. Higher areas of Logan lake and Cache Creek showed low numbers. Extremely hot/dry summer and i think the game had already moved to lower levels to find water this summer. Down low there were good numbers, and lots of sign in the bush.
 
Hunted in 62 again this year. Didn't get any deer but lots of sign. Scrapes and rubs all over. We saw about 5 deer ,3 were bucks but couldn't get off a shot. If anything it may be that the mature bucks did better than the does. Maybe their larger size helped them survive better. Anyhow the weather was great and a good time was had by all.
 
Used to be I could go for a drive and easily see 20 to 30 Whitetails. After the last couple of winters, lucky to see one or two.


Grizz
 
The deer numbers seem way down here. I just did a quad trip around the property, and none of the numerous deer trails from last year are in use. I only found one new trail that seems to have regular use.

I expect the long winter, and deep snow cover last year, were very hard on the deer.

Coyote numbers seem up. We have three packs that get into howling contests in the evening. The other night we were watching TV, and I heard some noise outside. When I turned the volume down, it was obvious that it was a pack of coyotes. The dog then heard them and began barking loudly (a German shepherd). The coyotes were close enough that they heard her from inside the house and shut up!

Looks like I may be out there thinning the population this winter.
 
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