On the Ridge: March snowstorm wreaks havoc on white-tailed deer population

A trail cam picture I received from a friend in Leyden after that terrible storm left anywhere from 20 to 39 inches of snow in the upper West County regions left me in awe and deeply saddened as I realized, maybe more clearly than ever before, the pure devastation a late winter snow like the one we just experienced can have on a simple yet powerful animal like a whitetail deer. I wanted to share that picture with Recorder readers, but the resolution was not good enough to be suitable for print. But if I had been able to share it, you would have seen a picture of an adult whitetail deer buried in snow with only the very top of its head and back showing, with snow piled up high around its neck as it tried to plow its way through but simply had nowhere to go.

That picture has haunted me for weeks now. It’s a profound but sad reminder that this winter really has been difficult for whitetail deer in our region, with this historic snowstorm only making matters worse and adding a few additional weeks of misery for many of the species that inhabitant Franklin County. And even though a whitetail deer has those long powerful legs giving them the ability to travel through 12-16 inches of snow with grace and ease, once depths start to reach 24, 26, 28 inches and above, it gets a little tricky, and at times downright impossible to navigate that sort of gut-wrenching snowfall. And as the snow pack becomes deeper and more dense, these sure-footed (or hooved) creatures become severely restricted.

Throughout the year however, whitetail deer will use paths, or runways, that lead to “deer yards” as the weather gets worse. These paths allow for easier travel from one yard to another, and as the snow continues to accumulate the deer will use these familiar travel lanes even more, continuing to pack down the snow — similar to what happens on cross country ski or snowshoe trails.

When the snow starts to approach 20 inches in depth, these paths become critical to a whitetail’s survival as movement through undisturbed snow at heavy depths, especially for younger or smaller deer, becomes exceedingly difficult to negotiate, but is very hard to avoid when the need for food becomes imminent. And when this happens, and travel is confined to only the well-worn travel paths, deer are prevented from accessing any type of feed which includes buds from trees, or any type of food source which may only be a few dozen yards from a runway.

Deer respond to these types of conditions by staying in their beds and shelter spots near, or inside, a deer yard. And they will sometimes do this for days at a time. South facing hillsides where dense evergreen cover helps keep the snow off the ground, but remaining on the tree boughs, are much preferred as bedding sites. These spots also tend to be sheltered from a strong northwest wind that can often create some very harsh conditions that will quickly eat into a whitetail’s energy reserves. The fat reserve that a deer builds up during the summer and autumn months is generally adequate to sustain them for several weeks to even a month if feeding is very limited and the weather is cold and harsh. However, if snow continues to fall in large quantities, and remains very deep for an extended period of time (especially if it’s accompanied by unseasonably cold weather), this will stretch their energy reserves right to the max, and their ability to retain body warmth will slowly deteriorate. Eventually, if they aren’t able to get to food during this period, starvation will slowly develop. That’s part of nature, I know, but still a harsh pill to swallow for me and others like me who hunt but who also love and respect whitetail deer.

All that said, it's been a long winter for white-tail deer in Franklin County. And the early March snowstorm didn’t help in the least. But on the positive side, while there were other storms this year, nothing was close to the March “kiss on the cheek” we received from Mother Nature a few weeks back! Unquestionably, there will be a fair amount of local white-tail deer mortality this season, yet, this is simply nature’s way. And the carcasses never go to waste as every fragment will be utilized by one form of wildlife or another. Perhaps we can take some comfort in that, and in Charles Darwin’s words, who probably said it best, “it’s not the strongest who survive, it’s those who most accurately perceive their environment and successfully adapt to it.”

Joe Judd is a lifelong hunter and sportsman. He is an outdoor writer, seminar speaker, member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association, and a 2019 inductee into the N.E. Turkey Hunting Hall of Fame. Joe is also on the Quaker Boy Game Calls and Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s Pro-Staff.]]>