Wildlife: Killing with kindness
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Just days after 20 inches of snow blanketed the ridge, a second storm arrived. We could have another eight inches by morning. Such conditions bring out the softie in many of us. We make sure the bird feeders are filled even before we shovel out the driveway.
But what about feeding the deer? They need a little help too, don't they?
No, no, no! Do not feed the deer. So says wildlife experts including Jerry Feaser of the Pennsylvania Game Commission; Jim Crum, a deer biologist for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, and Anne Ballmann, veterinarian and wildlife disease specialist for the National Wildlife Health Center.
It's unanimous among wildlife professionals. Feeding deer is such a bad idea, in New York it's illegal to feed deer by putting out any material that attracts them to feed. The penalty is a fine of up to $250 and 15 days in jail for each day of the offence.
Corn is what most wildlife lovers offer deer. Even if it's labeled "deer corn," feeding corn to deer is about the worst thing you can do. Unless you're trying to kill them.
"By late fall, deer instinctively reduce their food intake and continue to do so through most of the winter," said Feaser. "During that time, deer rely heavily on fat reserves and their ability to conserve energy."
A 1984 Pennsylvania study found that deer could survive a least a month with no food at all. During winter, deer lose 20 percent or more of their body weight by burning fat reserves. They are well adapted to surviving the many stresses that winter presents.
Deer digestion is a finely tuned physiological process. When offered a sudden supply of corn, a deer's digestive system doesn't have time to adjust to a high carbohydrate diet. The result can be acute acidosis followed by death within 72 hours.
"I see too many deer on my necropsy table with bellies full of corn," said Crum.
Ballmann said the creation of unnatural feeding stations creates further dangers for deer. Supplemental feeding, she said, "concentrates deer in small areas where a variety of infectious diseases can be spread." And in traveling to and from a supplemental source of food, deer -- especially the young and the old -- expend energy they can't afford to lose.
Feeding deer is never a good idea. The worst thing you can do for deer is feed them. Without your "help," some will starve, but that's how healthy populations stay healthy.
First Published February 14, 2010 12:00 am
