We're going to lose a lot of deer this winter.

WestVirginiaBrent · 02-10-2010, 07:28 AM

In my area there was hardly any acorns, no fruit, slim pickens all around, and now we have had what, 7+ feet of snow over the last few weeks, not good.

I highly doubt a late fawn like this has a chance, especially with coyotes out there prowling around.

WV Gino · 02-10-2010, 08:02 AM

That fawn was not going to survive even if we had a mild winter.

The main thing right now is how long winter lasts. I have seen March and April
weather be more like May here in Northern WV.

WV Gino

Cornelius08 · 02-10-2010, 08:03 AM

Yee-ouch! My god man, that is a late one! Never seen anything like it.

Id lay his odds right around zero.

DougE · 02-10-2010, 08:26 AM

Last year in Nov we were seeing a spotted fawn in TL.It seemed fine at that time but I'm not sure what happened to it.The year before that,I started to see one in my yard that was just loosing it's spot around december.I saw that one on and off througout the spring.He had the small fuzzy face look going on but I actually think he made it.It was a pretty mild winter though.

DougE · 02-10-2010, 08:30 AM

How much snow do you guys have right now?We had a cold winter so far and pretty much constant snow cover since almost the end of Nov.The worse it go was probably 16 inches but it only stayed like that for a few weeks.It was almost gone two weeks ago and then we got 10-12 inches over the weekend and probably another foot by the end of today.The deer went into winter around here in good shape because of the huge mast crop and mobility hasn't been a real factor yet.

Cornelius08 · 02-10-2010, 08:56 AM

Ive seen a few late born fawns through the years, but about the worst Id seen was where only a few of the spots were barely visible and the deer themselves were 2 to 3 times the size of that one in October and nov.

BTBowhunter · 02-10-2010, 10:47 AM

I've seen two spotted fawns in December. One in area 2D around 2003 and one in Illinois in 2007. The one in PA was shot by a hunter who didnt realize how small it was. The one in Illinois was almost frozen to death, could hardly move and mama was nowhere to be seen. It was extremely cold with a wind chill in the single digits that day. That fawn's suffering ended that day.

The fawn in the pic will have a really tough time if it's even made it this long.

cardeeer · 02-12-2010, 05:23 AM

Where in WV was there 7 feet of snow ??? Well they might survive if you feed them. I just put out another 1400 lbs of feed. We only have 12 inches on the ground; Infact we had rain on tuesday

WestVirginiaBrent · 02-12-2010, 08:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cardeeer

Where in WV was there 7 feet of snow ??? Well they might survive if you feed them. I just put out another 1400 lbs of feed. We only have 12 inches on the ground; Infact we had rain on tuesday

Total for the winter thus far is roughly that, we've had over 24 inches on the ground for almost a week now and this is th emost snow for the mid-Atlantic region since 1884, which is when they started to keep records of it. I'm in the eastern panhandle.

I've been thinking about this though and the northern deer do just fine with this kind of winter, so I imagine only the weak will be culled, but I don't know. I haven't stumbled upon any winter haven areas yet and haven't seen any deer since the big storm hit.

Daveboone · 02-13-2010, 06:23 AM

What you have down there for a few week we have for months on end here. As long as the deer are in good condition going into it, they will be fine. When the snow get deeper than their belly, then they have trouble moving. Your deer have the advantage that the general temperatures there are much warmer than here overall, so they dont burn as much energy. Your snow will melt off quite quickly. I doubt you will have any lasting effect.