Whitetails and deep snow!!

[chris lavoie]

Here in western Ontario we have snow up to our waist with comfortable temps of -10 to -20 degrees celcius. The deer seem to not be stressed as everyone would expect them to be. They seem to stick to their well used trails. They are eating old mans beard (moss that hangs off evergreen branches), browse and thats ALL. The timberwolves are having the hardest time as the snow is too deep for them. Some deer are congegating in the fresh clear cuts untill the wolves move in for fresh meat. The deer learn, it seems, that even though clear cuts are a great food source in the winter, they know to be on high alert for wolves. As soon as I show myself (walking) in a clearcut, no matter how carefull I am not to spook them, they pick me out at 200 yards. We listened to a chase yesterday where the wolf eventually gave up on the chase when they came to the road, the whitetail prevailed. But eventually in late March the crust on the snow will come giving the deer the disadvantage.

[chris lavoie]

I spoke too soon!! Last week after my first post we had a warm up to about 8 Celcius, with rain. The thick crust is here with cooler temps. Found four wolf killed deer just over night while out trail riding, 1 young buck- 2fawns- 1 doe. We did however, have an over population of deer up to this point. The other night, while at the cabin, we could hear the pack of wolves howling in the distance. It was a full moon.

[chris lavoie]

When the snow gets too deep, the whitetails metabolism slows down due to a couple of reasons. Their movement and food consumption. When they move less they require less food, which in turn slows down their metabolic rate (using less energy). Thats why they say not to feed deer during harsh winters, as you falsely speed up their metabolism. For those feeding deer during winters like this, you must feed them until their most nutricious food source arrives, the newly budding leaves. This is also the bears first food source of the spring. Feeding deer will also congregate the deer, making them easy prey. Normally our northern whitetails (Western Ontario) are loners being able to live in quite a small area.

[chris lavoie]

Because of the thick crust on the snow the deer are able to get to a new level of browse and moss. The snow is still up to my waist but the deer can stand and run on top of the snow. I can actually walk anywhere on the 3.5 feet of snow without snowshoes. I found a wolf kill and back tracked the deers last hundred yards. You can see where the wolves were nipping and grabbing the rear, indicated by the clumps of hair and flesh. But the deer kept kicking untill you can see where 2 or 3 wolves jumped on it's back. According to what I saw the deer actually dragged a wolf 10 feet or so. It's amazing the animals will to live. I guess the wolves have to eat too!!

[chris lavoie]

Saw a buck today right in camp. Still had half a rack. Doesn't make sense as this would normally mean that this bucks stress level was low this past winter. Don't know for sure but I think it's the same buck I saw here in March 2010. It was a six point then, this year the half rack showed him to be 8point or better. Amazingly I think our deer managed fair to good over the winter. Our snow pack has been gone for 10 days or more. Temps go below freezing every night but warm up to about 8 degrees each day.