Deer and Water

[bowmaker]

I have a question for all the experts on here. In very cold weather like now cattle and horses need large amounts of water to stay healthy. What do the deer do for water when every thing is frozen. In my area there are very few cattle so the deer can't be sharing their water source. Every creek and pond is solid and no springs flowing. Can they eat snow without lowering their body temps? I have asked several people including a biology instructor and no one seems to know. Just one of those little nagging questions.

 

[SaskGuy]

Surely there has to be a source of open water there, even a very little one.

Here winter deer yards usually coincide with areas on the river that stay open year round, usually areas around bever dams etc. Even with -40 temps here in winter there is always a small amount of open water, there has got be some there.

 

[J Becker]

Along with just going to water regularly, if you shoot a deer (more so in the guts) they will run towards a good source of water. Durring the winter, could they just eat snow too???

HunterMan

 

[bowmaker]

Right now with our current cold snap the only open water arround here is the Des Moines river, and that is 3 or 4 miles away. The only thing I can figure out is that they must eat snow but then what happens when we have one of our dry winters with almost no snow fall?