Northern Maine Deer Herd (Bangor, Augusta: live, eat, pine)

[dmyankee]

Looks like a real rough winter for our deer population. I'm at the southern edge of the northern habitat and we have 4+ feet of snow on the flat as of today. This article has quite a bit of depth.

Disclaimer: This article is also graphic! Please do not flame up the post. You have been warned!

Record snowfall in northern Maine leaves deer herd in deep trouble (http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=162261&zoneid=500 - broken link)

[Northern Maine Land Man]

I started out with a doe and her 2 fawns from last year. Now I have 7 deer in my woods. I don't feed near the road. I want them away from the road. I bring my feed in by snowmobile. They can walk on my trails. They are like pavement. Our snow is very dense so they can walk on the crust, but they will punch through if they run on it.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Deer have a life span of 7 years. Some will live longer, but none reach 10 years. There are tales of "Old Mossyhorns" who has been around some swamp for 30 years. Psssst; That isn't the same deer. That is just good habitat for big deer. With a limit of 7 years, it stands to reason that 1/7 of the deer who survive hunting season will die during a normal winter. That is 14%. We could lose double that this year according to the article. That makes sense because we have had several easy winters preceding this winter. If an old deer makes it through a winter there is a good chance they will make it through until the next winter. They are the biggest factor in the increased mortality. We'll lose a bigger share of the 2007 fawn crop too. I agree that large scale feeding upsets the balance and artificially inflated deer numbers in an area. On the opther hand, I feed only near the end of a hard winter like this one and that can be the difference between survival or not for a few deer. My concern is that does can't delay dropping their fawns. We could lose some of the 2008 fawn crop very early if we don't lose some of this snow pretty soon.

I hope we have a good even thaw. We sure don't need a warm wind and a warm rain.

[dmyankee]

I expect a lot of mortality from this years fawn crop. Malnutrition may force a lot of premature and stunted births. There was a later than normal rut north of here last year. Quite a few bucks were going into winter in rough shape as it was.

[mainebrokerman]

from what i hear, moose may be more abundant than thier cousin the white-tail, way up north (aroostook county)

i travel the interstate nearly everyday, and have seen more deer in the past two weeks,,than all last year,,,especially,,,north of bangor,,(beside the road) and of course the skidders are there thinning out,,(which seem to be attracting the deer for feed)
it only makes sense that the deer are having a very challenging winter,,,and could be easy pickings for coyotes...
however, the deer i have seen beside the road, between lewiston and lincoln, have looked quite healthy, which im pleasently surprised about....
i slowed down to a road kill on my way to lincoln the other day,(on 95) the deer looked healthy (outside of having her hind end shattered, )

i saw 4 this morning driving past sabattus, they looked good also,,,personally, i wonder what the heck to they eat to get by?? bark? pine cones??
i saw a turkey ,,,beside the road ,,,and it looked healthy(it was walking)

nmlm,,,made some good points pertaining to age ,,,and survival, maybe it is good to have a tough winter once in a while,, if there was ten straight yrs of mild winters, and a winter like this,,would it eradicate half the herd? (because they couldnt adapt and survive?)

[Maineah]

The deer could use a good thinning out anyway. It's too bad there aren't more people hunting them anymore and they have to starve to death but that's the way it goes.
You can't feed every deer in the State and shouldn't. Nature will hit a balance as she always does. IF&W does a good job managing the hunting pressure with the herd numbers though there still many areas in Southern Maine especially, that could stand some higher numbers taken.

[dmyankee]

Southern Maine residents should get to take at least a half a dozen per season. Turkeys to! They are getting so common, it should be every Mainers duty to take one.

[island mermaid]

Originally Posted by dmyankee

Southern Maine residents should get to take at least a half a dozen per season. Turkeys to! They are getting so common, it should be every Mainers duty to take one.

Agreed, take two - they're free!

[countrylv22]

Originally Posted by dmyankee

Southern Maine residents should get to take at least a half a dozen per season. Turkeys to! They are getting so common, it should be every Mainers duty to take one.

THANK YOU FOR THIS THREAD & POST!!


Like "MERMAID" said, AGREED!!! I will take two of each!! LOL!


Take care,

Have a great day everyone!!

Countrylv22

[Northern Maine Land Man]

There was bare ground in the open fields between Bangor and Augusta last week. I mean extensive bare spots, not a total absence of snow. Deer will feed on dry grass. During the winter they feed on buds, raspberry tips, bark at the ends of young shoots and cedar. Those are the preferred diet. They will eat spruce and fir tips if they have to.

Turkeys eat buds during the winter. Of course they can eat buds out of the tree tops so they don't compete with deer as much as some people think.