Winter Kill

[Suilleabhain]

This winter should have near zero kill and a lot of does dropping twins.

Whatcha think?

[Nomad]

Its been a great winter for the deer. The weird thing is this week I got back out in the woods,and first I find a dead 7 pt in my woods that was not there in gun season. I email a friend he was out the same day and found 3 dead deer including one big body buck who just cast his antlers.

Then a guy on here PM's me he found one. Then I walk my dog here in webster and find a pretty fresh dead 9pt. My friends 3 were also in Webster, near the lake.

yes this doesn't prove anything,just weird.Oh well I'll be out Tues. hope I don't find anymore on my spot...

[ny hunter]

We walked all or property today,jumped 6 or 7 deer no antlers We didn't find any dead ones but I found an aweful lot of cat and dog tracks,gonna try in a couple of weeks to call and see what happens.

[G-Man]

Deer die all the time ..old age, complications from injuries,accidents, i don't think any will starve this winter though....

[Geno C]

Sometimes the rut is very hard on bucks and generally its not uncommon to see a healthy looking buck die of exhaustion after the rut. Just food for thought...

[Doc]

Larry- Was there any visible signs showing the cause of death (I'm thinking bullet holes)? Do you have a coyote problem or a bunch of dogs roaming loose? Any possibility of disease? We do have some pockets of diseases here in NY.

There are a lot of natural causes of death for deer as has been mentioned, particularly bucks. Last year I shot a buck that I am convinced would not have made it through the winter because of massive bite wounds and large chunks of meat taken out of his rump. I have also found things like a buck skull down in the bottom of a 200' deep ravine that had a piece of an antler embedded on the skull right below the eye-socket. So I know there are some pretty violent ways for deer to meet their end. I wouldn't be too concerned unless you start finding a high concentration of carcasses. Then you might want to contact the DEC. The friend that found 3 dead deer in one day might have something to be concerned about there.

[nyantler]

Deer die all the time ..old age, complications from injuries,accidents, i don't think any will starve this winter though....

Bingo!

[WNYBuckHunter]

Winter isn't over yet, don't let it lull you into thinking we still can't get pounded and have complete snow cover, with a few layers of frozen slush or hard pack under it for a month. It's not likely, but it could still happen.

[wztirem]

Winter kill is not the only factor. The availabilty of food is paramount is determining breeding success.

[NYBowhunter]

Considering some of my apple trees were still holding fruit and that was just 2 weeks ago and there was very little snow on the ground, I think this winter will be easy on the deer. Not uncommon in my area to have 3 feet of snow on ground at this time of the year, just have not even see anything close to that this year. What kills deer is deep snow that sticks around for most of the winter.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Or crusts over once or twice. They can't dig through that stuff.

[Four Season Whitetail's]

When we have winters like we have had this winter sometimes deer get colostridia. If the bacteria in the rumen is effected with the weather swings and the change in feed it can take them over the edge!! Its does not happen alot in the wild but does happen. We also had ehd hit in parts of ny this year so the weather swings can do a number on animals. They say a whitetail in good health can survive 60 to 90 days on their reserves if food is depleted so i would think we are safe for the most part going into feb. The big problem would be if the deer could not escape yotes and wild dogs before starving to death!!!

[Doc]

Even if the winter does revert back to ugly, the deer have already gotten well into this winter without having to burn any of fat reserves that they normally would have by this time of the season. So it would have to turn around with something totally ridiculous to impact the herd now. A heavy crust would impact all of wildlife, but most critters would normally not be eating a whole lot of nutricious stuff right now.

Lol ..... this winter is certainly feeding all the "global warming" theorists. My thought: If this is global warming, bring it on. Let's get out there and spray those aerosol spray cans ...... ha-ha. I love it!

[nyantler]

Even if the winter does revert back to ugly, the deer have already gotten well into this winter without having to burn any of fat reserves that they normally would have by this time of the season. So it would have to turn around with something totally ridiculous to impact the herd now. A heavy crust would impact all of wildlife, but most critters would normally not be eating a whole lot of nutricious stuff right now.

Lol ..... this winter is certainly feeding all the "global warming" theorists. My thought: If this is global warming, bring it on. Let's get out there and spray those aerosol spray cans ...... ha-ha. I love it!

Took the words right out of my mouth...

[landtracdeerhunter]

They have chewed the willows back and have hit the lower hanging maple buds here in early Jan. Signs of an early spring? Red clover has new shoots. Green grasses still on east side of woods. Even the alfalfa fields are being grazed yet. Global warming feels better to me, than Global cooling, as long as it doesn't go to far.

Edited January 31, 2012 by landtracdeerhunter

[Doc]

Winter kill? ........ There's going to be a winter kill alright. If I can get my hands on those critters I'm going choke them. I HAD 24 yews that I planted on a bank out back. The area is too steep to maintain with mowers and such, so I figured I would put in these yews that get about 3' in diameter and would be like a ground cover. I made some small welded wire cages to put over top of them to protect them from the rabbits. The other morning I got up to find each and every cage pushed over and each plant bit down almost to the ground. I had 2 years invested in these things and they were growing like crazy. Just got done patting myself on the back for such a great start for these things. I've got to check and see if I can get a nuisance permit to kill 'em all.

I can't figure out why they picked the one year where they don't have the slightest worry about food, but I am POed.

[Nomad]

Like I said, just weird, does not prove anything.My point was an easy winter and we're finding more dead deer at least for the little we've been out, which based on past years is not the norm.I understand animals die ....

Going to pull more stands and walk around with my 25.20 thursday i hope thats it.

[shawnhu]

Winter kill? ........ There's going to be a winter kill alright. If I can get my hands on those critters I'm going choke them. I HAD 24 yews that I planted on a bank out back. The area is too steep to maintain with mowers and such, so I figured I would put in these yews that get about 3' in diameter and would be like a ground cover. I made some small welded wire cages to put over top of them to protect them from the rabbits. The other morning I got up to find each and every cage pushed over and each plant bit down almost to the ground. I had 2 years invested in these things and they were growing like crazy. Just got done patting myself on the back for such a great start for these things. I've got to check and see if I can get a nuisance permit to kill 'em all.

I can't figure out why they picked the one year where they don't have the slightest worry about food, but I am POed.

So was this the doings of a Deer, or Rabbits?

[Doc]

So was this the doings of a Deer, or Rabbits?

Definitely deer. The cages were too heavy for rabbits to tip over, and there were deer tracks all over the area. I put things back, and got a good look at my mangled yews. I'll be surprised if any of them survive. I should stake a couple of coyotes out there as watch-dogs.....lol.