How do they survive?

[bowdude]

I am afraid the deer and turkeys are going to have a huge die off this winter. The weather in the midwest has been just nuts the last few weeks.  Tonight is just incredible, I don't think I have ever seen anything like this in my life with these winds.  In the past I always noticed the colder it got the more still it was.  Predicted -18 tonight with 50 mph winds by me.  I already called in to work tomorrow, told them I wasn't even going to set my alarm.

[Bonebuster]

Winter where I am is not as severe as some areas, but I still wonder how they (wild things)
make it through sometimes.

Sure am glad I don`t have to sleep in the woods and eat sticks.

[Labs4me]

I was looking out at the deer behind the house thinking the same thing this evening. 47 degrees today. Raining heavy and gusting winds as I type. Forecasted high of 18 degrees tomorrow.

I live between two river bottoms, which is where the local deer typically head during the winter to get out of the wind. Unfortunately this winter, an atypical amount of rain has resulted in the river bottoms flooding leaving the deer without a wind-break sanctuary.

[BowsnLabs]

You're right Bowdude.  It's -15 here (MN) now and the house is literally shaking from the wind gusts. I can't imagine having to try and find shelter out there tonight!  

I remember not long after I moved to MN, I was helping a buddy process a doe he had shot late in the season here.  Having moved from NC, I couldn't believe the layer of fat on the deer's body after we got the (frozen) skin off, almost completely covering the deer's body and over 1" thick in most places.  It almost looked like a different species of animal than what I was used to seeing in the South!  Just goes to show you God and Nature has a way for everything.  

I'm personally a little concerned about the pheasant population lately though.  The past couple of years have been great here and in the Dakotas and I hope this winter doesn't do anything to change that.  Stay warm - Greg

[Shawn Leonard]

It is the deep snow that ya need to worry about. The cold and rain usually do not result in too many dying. The deep snow makes for lack of food thus lowering body fat content, this results in the deer burning their reserves to soon and they die after a long winter. Shawn

[bowdude]

Thats the thing on the snow, we have that too this year.  Over 5 feet and counting for snowfall this winter.  As soon as it gets above 0 it starts snowing it seems.

[brettlandon]

We had 53 degree weather yesterday in central Iowa.  It melted most of the snow which was about 4 inches.  That followed a 48 degree day on Sunday.  As I type now, it is 3 degrees with a 35 mph northwest wind.  This is the weather that makes the whitetails and turkey (easterns)strong and healthy.  Now as for the humans...
...well rule #12 should apply more!    

-Brett

[geno]

it was 65 here today and by 5:00 it was 18, windy and snowing. Talk about going into shock.

[ChuckC]

We had record snowfall in December and the worst part was that we got maybe 8-10 inches of heavy wet snow and it then froze.  All the rest landed on top of that, so that great acorn crop and field leavings were covered.   We had a pretty nice melt off a few weeks ago...kind of a reprieve, but now this is gonna screw it up again cause it rained hard this morning and now it is around 0 with that wind.   I agree.  We are gonna see less deer and turkeys next year.
ChuckC

[Izzy]

I read a while back that it takes 9 weeks of below zero for the element to severely impact whitetails.Im sorry but I cant remember where it was but it was a good read on how deer cope.Good luck to you, I hope your critters fare well.

[La. bowhunter]

Well down here we dont have to worry about that kind of thing it hasnt snowed here in 7-8 years but yesterday we got the big temp. change everyone is talking about. Yesterday at 3:00 pm when I went to work it was 72 degrees when I got off work at 11:00 pm it was 28 degrees.

 I sure hope you folks in the mid west dont have a big die off that would really screw up my hunting plans next fall. You need to go get them deer and turkeys some hot soup and some electric blankets.

[Dustin Waters]

Think about this fellas

Here in Indiana at 5:45 last night the temperature was 48 and raining.  When I walked back out to my car at 8:15 it was 9 degrees and snowing like nothing I had seen before.  Everything that was wet before was now solid ice and the winds were blowing in excess of 35-50 mph gusts.  How in the world could anything that got wet all day survive that kind of temperature drop?

[d. ward]

Our elk hunting camp (5,000 ft.elv.)is under over 13 feet of snow right now in the Cascade Mountians.It's still snowing so hard interstate 90 main highway between eastern and western washington has been closed for 24hrs.and will not open until sometime later today.Our elk and deer have to be hand fed,by man in feeding stations right now.....Or they are dead...Problem,the freeway cuts right through there normal route of travel down to the low lands to feed in winter.So they put up game feeding stations to prevent the critters from crossing the freeways.This year the snow is so bad in thier normal winter range,there are around 12,0000 head of elk in 3 stations....Then head south of me toward Mt.St Helens between 8,000 to 12,000 elk and god only knows how many blacktail deer getting feed deliverd daily....Helens herd is so out of control because it's been closed since may 18th 1980 eruption.The D of F&W had to open it to elk hunting permits this year to try and thin out some 4,000 head they could not afford to feed this winter.. It's really tough on them...bowdoc

[Bill Carlsen]

The Lakes area of NY gets tremendous amounts of snow every year and I have never heard of it being a problem for the deer herd. As I have understood it the stress of the winter has more bearing on birth rates than actual kill off. Perhaps someone with a job or degree that deals with this could chime in. My background in Biology does not include this as an area of knowledge or expeertise. I do know that prolonged periods of severe cold and snow can have bad results but the specifics do not come to mind.

[trapperDave]

we had tornadoes last night(evening) and now its 9 degrees with a 15 below wind chill

[vermonster13]

They've been surviving it for around a 100,000 years. Except for where they have been cut off from wintering grounds like in bowdoc's case, they will find a way. The weak will die and the strong will pass on their genes as it has always been except for where we interfere and feed them all unnaturally increasing the number of animals in an area that has a lower carrying capacity.

[Robhood23]

We had 40 degree weather on Monday, Rained that night froze and is currently -12. I put corn on a stump for the squirrels and the deer where there yesterday afternoon breaking the layer of ice off the corn to eat it. It was pretty neat to watch them do this. Amazing critters!!

[Orion]

Just having an old fashioned winter in Wisconsin.  Haven't had one for five or six years.  The last really bad winter in terms of cold and snow was in 1991.  Most of the deer will make it through, except in the far north where there may be a little die off.  Will be a little harder on turkeys, particularly in the north where food is more scarce.

Speaking of 1991, did some scouting in the northern part of the state in late March as the snow was beginning to recede.  Though deer usually move out of my area when the snow gets heavy, not all of them make it.  Thought I had made a good sneak on a deer I spotted "sleeping" curled up under a spruce tree.  A yearling.  She was dead, of course, frozen in place.  Scavangers hadn't found her yet.  She looked so peaceful.  I hope her death was.

[Steve H.]

Wind can also blow snow off the food sources making them able to feed.  We had a big deer die off last year cause the snow was too deep for too long.

Guarantee they are tucked away in good cover where the wind isn't 50 mph!

[ChuckC]

Steve...that is my worry.  Around Madison, we had heavy wet snow in early December and it promptly froze solid.  No more acorns or spent grain available.    Now, we just had another storm that swept the country. Not much snow here from that storm, but we had a bunch on the ground already.

The storm did give a fairly substantial rain fall, however,  then hours later the temps were 0 and below, so there is undoubtedly another crust of ice covering everything.  Browse will be the sole food source this winter.  

I believe the animals can take the cold...as long as there is food available.  Orion is right, we have had a bunch of lame winters and no die off to speak of except in a few places in the NW with lake effect snowfalls.  

This year is maybe the first in..... well ...years when we had snow cover since the beginning of December at least and non-stop so far.

Deer I have seen lately still look great, and there are turkeys all over the place, but it is not yet February.
ChuckC