It’s been a tough winter – at least since the new year began – for us and for many species of wildlife. We got a major break early when November and December generated very little snow. By the holidays, things were looking quite positive for those feathered and furred critters that spend their lives in the great outdoors. Then the decline started, ironically on the heels of a brief early-January thaw.
It was as though Mother Nature decided to condense an entire season’s winter weather into the final two months of the winter. Major snowfalls kept riding the jet stream to the Northeast, in the process carrying storms that repeatedly buried us with white stuff that varied from a few inches to a foot or more. Suddenly we were faced with snow depths that paralyzed foot travel, unless by snowshoes or skis
Perhaps it could’ve been worse, had we also experienced a prolonged period of sub-zero temperatures. But heavy snowfalls and severe cold don’t normally occur at the same time. However, once our snow covering reached critical depth, it translated to life-and-death struggles for some wildlife, in particular, deer and wild turkey. Since it arrived so late in the winter season, a time when wildlife is the most weakened and vulnerable, it was doubling damaging. Once snow depth reaches a deer’s belly area, travel becomes very difficult and tiring, as does just finding and reaching adequate browse to keep them from starving.
During the warmer months a deer’s diet consists of green, succulent vegetation and that allows them to build up fat levels in their bodies. However during winter that food source is nonexistent, and deer must rely on browse from trees and shrubs. Their winter diet has considerably less nutrition, and accordingly deer will then be forced to rely on stored fat to survive. The quality of winter habitat varies considerably, and unfortunately much of our winter habitat in Chenango County NY is mature forest and/or over-browsed low-growth landscape.
Typically young-of-the-year fawns are the first to perish from winter-kill, simply because they never achieve the same level of fat depositions that adult deer have. The old, injured and infirm are typically next to succumb. Surprisingly yearling bucks are often among the next to die because they have a smaller body size and smaller amounts of stored fat because they participated in the fall rut instead of consuming fall foods to add to their fat reserves. In severe winters, prime age does are the last group to die from winter starvation. When the herd suffers wide scale losses in all age classes in especially harsh winters, the deer population will be dramatically reduced in the upcoming fall. If starvation conditions occur for any measurable length of time it is critical for deer biologists to be in the field evaluating the impacts of winter. It is not necessary to specifically count the number dead deer but it is very crucial to know what age classes are being impacted by winter-kill in order for deer management permit quotas to be set. In spite of the other forms of non-hunting deer mortality, winterkill remains as the most potentially significant cause of non-hunting deer losses. After all of the losses from predation, vehicle collisions and hunting season, winter mortality can reduce a deer population to its lowest level at any time throughout the year.
Wild turkeys have it a bit easier since they often feed on the residual grain contained in cow manure where farmers spread it on fields. But as operating farms continue to decline, even that may become a rarity in some areas. Turkeys will also resort to the berry-like seeds of the sumac, but that is often a last resort food item. However when snow depths get too deep, flocks have a harder time moving from one food location to another.
While a reduced deer herd and turkey population in our area may be looked at favorably by some, those who enjoy hunting spring and fall wild turkeys and fall deer may find their success rates greatly diminished this year.
