Any biologists in the house? Deer number question.

[maple_leaf_eh]

Thanks for the two links gents. Good science is hard for governments. A now-deceased family friend was a goose biologist, who could talk PhD science at CITES or policy with the deputy minister. He must have been too field smart for his own good, but he did speak highly of a few decision makers who 'got' what reality means for the ebbs and flows of populations, habitat, predation, and sustainment.

 

[m1008]

All good info! My pet peeve about feeding deer is that it can do more harm than good. Deer aren’t bears, and their 4 chambered stomachs are extremely sensitive to the introduction of new foods. In fact deer can die from the introduction of the wrong foods or at the wrong time of the year. Do a Google Search for “acidosis in deer”.

Cedar branches makes good deer food as their stomachs are usually used to eating it.

People don’t care they want pets, it’s a Disney mentality. Deer get feed by people in town Dryden, Kenora and others have large town deer numbers (bucks will often carry antlers well into March) and people outside of town feed em for hunting reasons. The mnr even provides free feed during heavy snowfall winters.

The winter supplemental feeding by topping trees (no one’s climbing trees to top em for deer food) I say this as an arborist.

 

[farmer47]

based on the number of deer killed on the road in our area i am guessing numbers are low. as for an easy winter i am seeing corn fields that are picked over for food. lots of accessible feed. coyote numbers are high which is bad for young fawns. i saw antlers on a buck this past week while coyote hunting. about eight deer in a group and they looked well fed .

 

[Joel]

Snowfall depth is our main consideration here for estimating/managing populations in the next year. YMMV in different areas/provinces.

First or second year using this new tool which mimics the footfall/depth of the average step by the average whitetail, if dropped from the prescribed height.

 

[m1008]

^wintering deer yards are pretty well defined once they make their trails in a deep snow winter, once the available food is gone it’s gone. The wintering areas will only support a certain population density, mild easy winters change this and people get upset or panic when the deer run out of food.

Winter snow depths aren’t predictable and the province won’t maintain populations that can be supported by available wintering yards/area

Easy to tell if it starved to death by lack of marrow in major bones