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Winter kill for wildlife?

muddy

muddy

Well-Known Member
Anybody know if the DNR has done any reports on winter kills for pheasant, turkey, or deer this winter?

I thought of this the other day when I saw a big long beard walking butthole deep in the snow.
 
Yesterday I helped a friend pull some traps. Each time we got the long track Bombadier stuck, we we're belly deep in snow..and more was falling. I'm not sure what's going to be alive in the spring...moose, and porcupines.
 
Its messing up Illinois too. People over there arent too happy. The DNR wont let you feed any wildlife other than putting squirrel feeders in your yard. Its stupid. A year like this it would be nice if people could dump a ton of corn in a field for the deer and turkey to feed on while times are tough.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Aim-n-High</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Its messing up Illinois too. People over there arent too happy. The DNR wont let you feed any wildlife other than putting squirrel feeders in your yard. Its stupid. A year like this it would be nice if people could dump a ton of corn in a field for the deer and turkey to feed on while times are tough.</div></div>


yea and spread cwd like crazy.
 
oh so lets just not feed the deer and let them starve????! ya now your thinking!!!! they better not eat acorns off the ground either huh? /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif
 
ha yea. my comment wasnt suppose to be as smirk as it reads i just meant that is their concern.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Aim-n-High</div><div class="ubbcode-body">oh so lets just not feed the deer and let them starve????! ya now your thinking!!!! they better not eat acorns off the ground either huh? /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif </div></div>

If they get CWD it won't make a difference because it will decimate the population.
One deer can spread it to hundreds in the right setting and one food source definitely would do it.

If the deer are thinned out they will bounce back rather quickly.
If they get CWD it might take awhile until the DNR is sure the disease is taken care of. Possibly years.
 
Just checked out the areas in illinois where CWD was found. Looks like it was found closer to iowa than to the place my family hunts over in Illinois. Hopefully it doesnt reach either. Bad deal. I guess the humans who have had it didnt last long. It ate away their brain.
 
Is CWD a real threat to wildlife, or something that has always been around and always will be? Has their ever ben a true confirmed human death from it? In Mi. alot was made of TB. Lots of money spent,lots of grants, but it has always been around and alot of extra killing of deer has not eradicated it. Natural eating by wildlife of buds and brush I guess is best, but agricultural fields will always be around and concentrate contact.I think it is something we will just have to live with. If a deer looks strange inside or out, don't eat it,bottom line.Even with this winter the deer down here will make it. They are tough and these winters nothing like some I saw in N. Mi. with belly deep snow from Dec to April, and below zero days on end.
 
This weather definately will take toll on smaller critters and birds though. Hopefully ticks and chiggers too! probably not.
 
I have found quite a few fawns dead while shed hunting. Just curled up in little balls with nothing wrong with them. 9 time out of 10 its a button buck. I have even found them bedded up dead in standing corn fields with corn everywhere, so it must be the cold.
 
Lone Ranger:

Humans get a similar form of the disease called CJD. Deer get CWD; sheed get Scrapie, Cows get "mad cow" (BSE)...they are all very similar in what they do to the brain, not to mention they are 100% fatal. It is caused by a little self-replicating "prion" that doesn't get as noticed as say a bacteria or virus would.

Deer can easily get it through blood, urine, saliva, or feces...and it's onset may be that of anywhere from a couple weeks to several months.

Hope that answers a few questions. We study this a little in my AP Bio class I teach...
 
It's probably a little more than just the concern over CWD. A deers stomach enzymes change in the winter to accomodate the breakdown of woody browse materials. If you were to go out and dump a ton of corn at this time of the winter you would more than likely kill more deer than you would help. They would gorge themselves on corn for the next week and never obtain any nutrition from it....thus starve to death with a stomach full of corn. Just my 2 cents
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> A deers stomach enzymes change in the winter to accomodate the breakdown of woody browse materials. If you were to go out and dump a ton of corn at this time of the winter you would more than likely kill more deer than you would help. They would gorge themselves on corn for the next week and never obtain any nutrition from it....thus starve to death with a stomach full of corn. </div></div>


Yep, just reinforcing the point for those who didn't know, or don't believe it. That's exactly what happens.
 
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