O.T. question for deer hunters/watchers in the great lakes

just another old geezer · Feb 14, 2011

I have a question for the white tail deer hunters and property owners in the wisconsin, minnesota, michigan areas. Has anyone else noticed a change in the wintering habits of the deer??? Used to be that in mid december, the deer left the farming areas and headed for the deep woods to herd up until mid march. I can never remember seeing a deer around here until after maple syrup season. Now they are keeping to the small wood lots and pawing the corn stuble all winter. At least one person I know blames this on the increased wolf population in the area. I see fresh tracks everyday when I spread manure. I live in clark co wisconsin in a mostly agricultural area.

rrlund · Feb 14, 2011

There was a time when deer were almost nonexistant in the lower penninsula. They were hunted,loaded on flatcars and sent to Detroit. Dad said that when he was a kid if you even saw a track while you were cultivating it was such big news that everybody would go out in the field to see it.
But as far as any recent change,no. I remember when I was a teenager,seeing herds of several hundred in the corn stubble in the snow. No change.

RayP(MI) · Feb 14, 2011

No wolves around here, but coyotes are.
Deer tend to herd up in the areas of good shelter. I often see them out in the fields where they can find grazing - corn, soys, etc that went unharvested, and are open of snow enough that they can still get to it. Bonus if near their hole-up areas. Will often stay in when weather is the roughest, and come out in breaks in the weather. Up until we got a bunch of snow, I was seeing tracks in my fields - not much to graze, so just passing through. This is central Michigan.

MartyinVa · Feb 14, 2011

I"m not anywhere close to you but its more deer in the area than you think. Trouble is not enough harvest be it man or wolf. They are still deep in the woods but not enough room or food for all of them.
My club (using dogs/as we have for years) had one of the best years in a long time.
Although its only been a month since the season went out the guys that fox hunt are still jumping herds of 7/8 at a time.
Don"t know the season or limits up your way but if you ain"t shooting at em or chasing them they will keep creeping in on ya.

Spook · Feb 14, 2011

I haven't noticed any change. Way too many is all I know. I heard from one of my old farmer neighbor's that when he was young, if you saw a deer, it was talked about for a month at the coop.

teddy52food · Feb 14, 2011

The wolf does more for the deer population than most people know. When the deer yard up & the snow is deep, they will stand on their hind legs to reach the tree buds for food. Soon the fawns are starving. Along comes the wolf & gets a weak one but it scatters te rest to a new food source. So you lose a few but the rest are better because of it. But the wolf population should be kept down too.

Rick Kr · Feb 14, 2011

No real changes here in mid-Michigan (eastern side). I see roughly the same amount roaming around. As others have said, lots of coyotes, no wolves this far south.

Rick

Anonymous-0 · Feb 14, 2011

Lot more food and lot less preditors in farm land. they ain't stupid.

hayray · Feb 14, 2011

Same here in Southeastern Michgan, Livingston county. I have not seen any change. No wolves this far south but lots of coyotes, which have pretty much zero impact on the deer population. As a kid deer where pretty hard to hunt, now more numberous but numbers down from 10 years ago. Upper Michigan is having a declining trend, wolves wrongly blamed for poor hunter success. Changing forestry conditions and overall management to reduce overly high deer numbers are responsible instead of a small number of wolves estimated in the 700-800 head range, heck a million deer hunters can't control the population. During the 80s and 90s it was very common in bad winters to loose half a million deer in Michigan from winter kill.

Russ from MN · Feb 14, 2011

Global warming, depends on snow depth too.

M Nut · Feb 15, 2011

Have never had trouble with wolves or coyotes in my area of MN during calving season in the last 25 years. This year I'll count as many 7 out at one time in various places on the farm in the middle of the day when looking from the yard. Tracks are actually packed trails where they are coming right near the cow yard. Several older cows in there that hate dogs/coyotes and will go after them in an instant, but also have several rifles in various easily accessible locations on the farm that are helping the situation too. Very bad year for the deer with the crusted, deep snow. They sink and the coyotes stay on top of the snow pack.

tjdub · Feb 15, 2011

> depends on snow depth too.

In my area, snow depth was really influencing the deer. They are having a heck of a time browsing right now. I've been pulling oak tops for firewood and every trail I make through the snow turns into a deer and turkey feedlot. Even if I make a trail by walking, I come back a week later and it's a deer trail filled with pellets. Snow's melting fast this week though, so that should improve things for them.

Paul from MI · Feb 15, 2011

I don't think our deer numbers have changed much in the last 10 years, still a lot of them. I had 8 in my bean field last week. Coyotes have made life difficult for the pheasants, but don't think they bother the turkeys as much, they are doing ok.

O.T. question for deer hunters/watchers in the great lakes

just another old geezer

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rrlund

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RayP(MI)

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MartyinVa

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Spook

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teddy52food

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Rick Kr

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Anonymous-0

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hayray

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Russ from MN

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M Nut

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tjdub

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Paul from MI

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