Snow depth and winter deer mortality

[superbee]

The magic number for deer is 50cm of snow. Anything over that is when the herd can suffer dramatically. Wea re currently at 52-58cm in the areas close to the border, areas further North are already exceeding that. I talked with the local biologist and he stated the deer are not too bad right now. We are currently looking at the possibility of a high mortality rate for fawns and yearlings. Depending on what March brings will dictate if we have a good birth rate for fawns this spring. If nothing else, the herd will more than likely have a weak age class due to this winter.

[HooknHorns]

I had a close friend of mine tell me they went and threw some alfalfa and corn down behind the cabin infront of their camera. They decided to walk a little bit for sheds and on the way back there was a dead doe next to the hay pile. He thinks it came through the thicket and smack its head or something. Too weird, told them to notify the dnr. Suppose maybe it had a heart attack or something cause it looked healthy.

[superbee]

Corn is a food source that does not give deer alot of good nutrients needed to survive in deep snow and cold. It is an empty food so to speak. If you are feeding deer hay, you need to feed them it all winter. They can not go from digesting browse to hay to browse again. Their stomachs make a switch in the season to digest the browse. Then if you feed them hay, they will feel full, but are not able to digest it for the nutrients. Unfortunately by feeding the deer corn and hay, you can essentially kill the deer. Alot of people do not understand this. I highly doubt the deer hit its head, I would guess its stomach is full and essentially starved to death because it could not digest the hay and lack of nutrients from the corn.

[nonteepical]

hinge cut some trees on your property,it will give the deer browse they can't get to, it will also provide bedding cover and open up the canopy for regeneration of the forest floor.

[HooknHorns]

This a friend of mine its not my land or deer. They were feeding cracked corn, dont know if that makes a difference? They hay has been there since the end of the season. There are alot of people in that area feeding deer right now, so who knows what theyre eating. Ive seen guys that are just going out to a gravity box and opening then closing it, those spots the deer are only eating whole kernal corn. I think alot of people forget about dehydration during the winter months and how that affects survival. The dnr should hand letters on feeding wildlife to hunters when they buy a tag.