Winter kill on whitetail

The reason they are all over the place is out of desparation. They will be in yards and in the open due to lack of food in the traditional locations. What worries me is the lack of sign everywhere other than a few locations. I've got a sinking feeling that a lot starved.

I've seen fields with deer around Saskatoon but back a ways in the farm land it is barren. There should be deer everywhere.
 
powdergun said:
The reason they are all over the place is out of desparation. They will be in yards and in the open due to lack of food in the traditional locations. What worries me is the lack of sign everywhere other than a few locations. I've got a sinking feeling that a lot starved.

I've seen fields with deer around Saskatoon but back a ways in the farm land it is barren. There should be deer everywhere.
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Not saying the winterkill wont be significant but it is pretty common to not see much sign in the fields when the snow gets deep...food is inaccessible or too much work for little gain. Animals move to traditional wintering areas...or yards where there are grain bins/spilled grain/bales/etc....

Lots of winters when snowfall is considered normal (Peace Region) there are alot of fields that are barren of tracks...

Ebb and flow folks....It has happened before...populations will recover....it'll happen again....
 
Winter here was pretty easy on the deer. They had open ground most of the winter even. One doe from last summer had 3 fawns and one was a lot smaller then the other two and even it made it through the winter. Watched them all last summer and seen all three nursing at the same time. Should make for a big herd again around here after the winter kill two years ago.
 
Around our cabin there are several winter kill, but there are very healthy herds of mulies and whitetail grazing on pretty much everything they can find. They aren't even looking where they're going as they got their nose stuck in the dirt!
 
gtrussell said:
Still seeing deer in Manitoba this spring,but the numbers are shrinking,along with the weight of the animals.Probably will be a small fawn crop.It seems like we have had snow forever.Still see lots of mature ones,but the fawns are having the toughest go.
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In your experience, how long does it take for a herd to recover from drastic winter kill? Theory is that the new herd actually has a stronger gene pool, since only the most fit survive. would appreciate your observations over the years on that, too

Ted
 
I would think they would recover within two or three good winters.Its tough to see the shape they are in.The weaker ones got thinned out this year for sure.
 
gtrussell said:
I would think they would recover within two or three good winters.Its tough to see the shape they are in.The weaker ones got thinned out this year for sure.
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After the two really bad winters in a row in 95-96' they closed the Whiteshell area down to bucks only for a few years and deer populations rebounded to levels at or above what they had previously been. Mind you for 5 years there weren't as many hunters due to the bucks only policy, and there were way less wolves around then! But you're absolutely right the strongest will survive and the weak ones get thinned out. I think it'll be a few years before you see multiple tags again in Manitoba. I guess I'll be a lot more selective now.
 
Here I'm only noticing normal levels of winter kill... Which is barely anything!! A couple, drove around back roads last week counted 90+ in the feilds and bush still very alive..
 
Went for a drive in the interlake seen quite a few deer.Although quite a few were quite skinny.We did some walking in the bush the only dead ones I seen were roadkill on our drive up there and back.
 
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