ORIGINAL: georgepoker
Another question? How many of seen deer look like the second photo I posted in Pa. woods over the last 20 years when the herd numbers was high? I can honestly say Not once have I seen a deer look like that. I am sure someone prob seen 1 or 2 of the pastyears, but never in the same year. So how can we conclude that deer are over populated and starving from lack of food during winter if there is no physical looking evidence? It's like a skinny chick and a fat chick. They both can be healthy but unlike deer, Most would prefer the thinner chick over the fat one. If a deer is under 100lbs and looks healthy without ribs showing it still must be starving and unhealthy because it isn't chunky.
I saw lots of deer that looked that poor right here in Elk County during the winters of 2002/2003 and then again one year later during the winter of 2003/2004.
Some of those deer died during the last few weeks of those winters and of those does that did barely survive they were so under nourished they didn’t produce very many fawns that weighed enough to survive after they were born.
R.S.Bodenhorn