The first week of buck season ended with kill totals down.
The DNR is blaming “hot” weather, something I don’t entirely agree with. A few years ago, it was freakishly hot during deer season, and they still managed to kill a lot of deer.
There are three real factors for why the deer kill was off:
- The bad winter and poor mast crop last year were really hard on the deer. The former is less of a factor than the latter, for it is the mast crop and the fat reserves it produces that allow the deer to survive even the most brutal conditions. Many deer just starved to death, and the surviving does either didn’t have their fawns or were only able to raise a single fawn this year. Mature does usually have twins, but they may abort or resorb fetal fawns if conditions are bad.
- Lack of hunter participation. Nationwide, fewer people hunt. And even fewer hunt deer in West Virginia. Not as many people come to hunt the relatively small deer here, and the recession is a definite factor on why hunters have not been out there.
- The good mast crop this year means the deer aren’t traveling to find food sources. Last year, when there were very little nuts on the trees, the deer seemed to be everywhere. That means they were forced out into the open to graze. It surprised me that the deer kill was off last year, but that sounds more like factor 2 coming into play than anything ecological. Deer simply cannot be killed when no one is hunting.
It is very likely that the deer population will recover. Nature operates in booms and busts like this. With fewer deer about, the saplings of various tree species can grow unmolested. That gives the young trees a head start, and with some species, the saplings will have grown so large and healthy that even modest deer predation cannot kill them.
This year’s mast crop is relatively good and with relatively fewer deer foraging on it, the does that should now be pregnant will have plenty of nourishment to develop healthy fawns. Most of the mature does should have twins next spring, and most of yearling does should have their singleton fawns.
And when they are born in May, they will grow from does that don’t have their fat reserves entirely depleted by both winter starvation and pregnancy.
That will give these fawns a good head start.
The deer numbers may not recover that first year, but if conditions remain relatively normal, they will return.
But the deer kill may stay low, simply because of low hunter participation.
Of course, that hasn’t stopped some people from resorting to what can best be called the Rusty Shackleford school of wildlife management.
Rusty Shackleford was the alias of one of the best fictional characters ever created for a TV series.
Now Dale might be a caricature of a certain paranoid sort that often exists in American politics. We often erroneously believe that these characters exist only on the right, but they exist on the left, too. Ever hear of the 9/11 truthers?
Well, these same sorts of sentiments exist even when discussing such mundane matters as deer numbers.
A good follower of the Rusty Shackleford school is the author of the Creston News, which appears in several publications in very rural West Virginia. The deer numbers are down for a very simple reason– “DNR coyotes.” Mr. Engelke writes:
One local fellow who has a game camera at his corn feeder reported that the only critters coming to the feeder were bears and deer tracks were scarce in the Two Runs – Rock Run area. Some feel that the coyotes, who prefer fawns to lambs, thinned the herd just like they have done in the mountain counties. Others wonder if the DNR or some other agency did something to reduce the population (on the sly of course).
I don’t have any official qualifications to speak, but I have read extensively about wildlife management issues. Mr. Engelke does have qualifications to talk about this matter. He has a degree in botany from the University of Wisconsin.
But I wonder where he learned that coyotes could have such a drastic impact upon deer numbers.
Coyotes do take deer, but these depredations are not enough to cause massive population crashes. Coyotes do take fawns, but in this part of the world, they are much more reliant upon small game. Deer evolved with canid predation, and the does instinctively know how to hide their fawns in dense cover to keep dogs and coyotes from killing.
Does are not milquetoasts when it comes to defending their fawns, as poor Miley found out. The summer before last, she was just walking near a spot where a doe had hidden a fawn. The doe was nearby and as soon as she saw the dog coming, she went after her. In the 70’s, my grandparents had a small dog named Carl who got badly beaten up by a doe defending her fawn. Dogs have a lot to fear from does with small fawns. They are very aggressive about defending their offspring.
If I were a coyote and had no access to a veterinarian, I think I’d be a little cautious about preying upon fawns. It’s less risky to hunt rabbits and groundhogs.
I’m not saying that coyotes don’t take deer or have no effect upon their number, but the lack of food and the harsh winter had a much greater impact upon deer numbers than any effect coyote predation could have.
Of course, there is another assumption in Engleke’s theory that must examined. He assumes that the DNR or some other dark agency released coyotes. I have always heard it was the insurance companies. The “rural legend” is that one guy shot a coyote with a tag in its ear that said “Property of State Farm.” The insurance companies supposedly released them– perhaps in concert with the DNR, which also denies the supposed existence of wolves and black panthers in West Virginia for some other dark reason– to thin out the deer herds. Fewer deer mean fewer insurance claims from automobiles hitting them on the roads.
Actually, coyotes got to West Virginia because, in case no one has noticed, coyotes now live throughout the Eastern US and a big chunk of Eastern Canada. They came east in spite of widespread persecution, because that same persecution killed off the wolf. Wolves normally kill coyotes, and with the wolf gone, the coyote could colonize the wolf’s former range in the East.
Secondarily, people were buying coyotes in Western and Midwestern states to release as a game animal. It wasn’t always illegal to do so, and many foxhound enthusiasts would rather their dogs run coyotes. I’m also certain that some coyotes were bred with dogs in captivity to make hybrids to be sold on the pet market. A certain very small percentage of coyotes in West Virginia have dog MtDNA
The Rusty Shacklefords believe that DNR wants to use predation to severely limit deer numbers. But the DNR itself operates in part on license fees. Deer are a major reason why people buy licenses. If the DNR wants the largest deer population it can sustainable have, then why would it introduce a predator to thin the herds?
And if that were its ultimate goal, why would it introduce the coyote, which can survive by hunting groundhogs and rabbits? Wouldn’t it be better to bring back the wolf or the cougar.
It is interesting that Mr. Engleke is now in favor of very high numbers of deer. I remember reading many editions of the Creston News in which he as expressed a concern that deer numbers were too high. And just this August, he was concerned they were eating too many peaches. If the coyotes were killing off the deer, you’d think he’d be happy about it. (Continued in another post– WordPress keeps bunching my text! This is Part II)
“Of course, there is another assumption in Engleke’s theory that must examined. He assumes that the DNR or some other dark agency released coyotes. I have always heard it was the insurance companies. The “rural legend” is that one guy shot a coyote with a tag in its ear that said “Property of State Farm.” The insurance companies supposedly released them– perhaps in concert with the DNR, which also denies the supposed existence of wolves and black panthers in West Virginia for some other dark reason– to thin out the deer herds. Fewer deer mean fewer insurance claims from automobiles hitting them on the roads.”
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Whad? Rode Kill dear not good? Whad we et wid out rode kill dear?
written for Dogs 4 Road Kill Deer.
Now Dale might be a caricature of a certain paranoid sort that often exists in American politics. We often erroneously believe that these characters exist only on the right, but they exist on the left, too.
Zany conspiracy theories are rife in the African-American community. While few blacks may fit whatever the current SWPL definition of a leftist may be, they do vote 95% Dem , and therefore can’t really be considered part of the right-wing.
http://www.danielpipes.org/books/conspiracychap.php
(…)
In a minor but indicative example, a new and inexpensive drink named Tropical Fantasy appeared throughout the northeastern United States in September 1990 and sold extremely well in low-income neighborhoods during the next half year. The fact that most of its Brooklyn, New York, employees were black made the beverage the more appealing. But anonymous leaflets turned up in black areas in early 1991, warning that the soft drink was manufactured by the Ku Klux Klan and contained “stimulants to sterilize the black man.” Although journalistic and police investigations found this accusation to be completely fraudulent, it struck a chord among consumers, and sales plummeted by 70 percent. Other products, including Kool and Uptown cigarettes, Troop Sport clothing, Church’s Fried Chicken, and Snapple soft drinks, suffered from similar slanders about the KKK and causing impotence, and they too went into a commercial tailspin.
(…)
The (erroneous) theory I have often heard as to coyote prescence in the East is because the GAME DEPARTMENT released them to control deer–this usually coming from disgruntled deer hunters that are so overly civilized and poor at hunting(sometimes from rabbit hunters that do not understand natural cyclical fluctuations in rabbit and hare populations), and have to have some excuse as to why they’re not bagging lots of deer–it COULDN’T be their lack of skill!!! Anyone who is familiar with fox hunters KNOWS that Foxhunters imported and released scads of coyotes–I personally remember seeing advertisements in the back of outdoor magazines for both coyote and fox pups–all throughout the 1960’s and 70’s before such things got regulated. What I’ve always heard was there was this(also incorrect) theory that sprung up in some postulating fox hunters’ minds, that to prevent their hounds from rioting on deer(which were repopulating lots of areas where they had been absent for decades), coyote scent was a lot stronger than fox scent, and would keep their dogs from being distracted and trailing/chasing deer. Didn’t work, of course, but it DID help really speed up the process of coyotes completely populating the East, which was occurring naturally anyway. Whenever I try to explain this to the Game-Department-Conspiracy-Theorizers, I point out that whenever Game Departments DO introduce ANY animals, they are extremely strict and controlling regarding hunting or killing them until their numbers can support some hunting. Virtually ALL Eastern states had no closed season or limit on coyotes, which they considered “invasives”–and many Eastern states still maintain this year-round open season on coyotes. I heard Georgia finally had to regulate “coyote hunting” because too many people were illegally spot-lighting deer, but when caught by Game Wardens, simply said–“oh, we’re COYOTE hunting!”, for which the Wardens couldn’t prosecute them!! I personally revel in the coyotes’ prescence throughout the East now–we REALLY needed a larger canine predator, and with the Gray Wolf genes from Eastern Canada, and “Red Wolf” genes from N. C./Tennessee releases turning up in coyote populations(and spreading), it is rather like the re-evolving of the original “Red Wolf” that was present in the East before it was wiped out with the European invasion. Long may they howl in my woods!
…Another interesting thing I’ve seen along these lines is, before coyotes were present in the East, the scapegoat for low deer harvests was because WILD DOGS(that is, feral domestic dogs) were slaughtering kuhzillions of deer–wiping them out! Of course truly feral dogs can kill no more deer than natural predators like coyotes and wolves–if anything, they are LESS skilled than these predators that have evolved to do so, and not had such ability bred out of them by humans, as many dogs have. I remember with amusement, reading two articles in the same outdoor magazine years ago–almost back-to-back–about how overpopulated the deer were, and how and why human hunters were needed to control the numbers to keep a balance and prevent the deer from stripping the habitat and starving to death! A few pages over, another article on how wild dogs were DECIMATING the deer populations! Unrealistic perceptions of animal predators vs. us have been going on like this since Neanderthal days!!!