For example, in the words of the National Deer Association:
“The best option is to give deer more of the winter foods they are already adapted to eating: winter browse. This includes buds and twigs of woody plants. Introducing new foods in the middle of winter, especially in high quantities all of a sudden, can actually be more harmful to deer than not feeding them at all …” because deer can’t gain nutrition from foods that their gut micro-organisms are not adapted to digesting. Thus, in late winter, "deer carcasses can begin to pile up."
There are at least two things wrong with this perspective. The first is that it may be counterproductive to give deer extra food to keep them alive in winter where deer are overpopulated, diseased, and badly degrading the ecosystem. The second is that the over-dependence on twigs may be largely a reflection of the ecological degradation in our woods and savannas.
To put that second point differently, ecosystem managers have allowed habitats to become so shady that most herbaceous (non-woody) plants have died.
We’ve long noticed that deer in late winter (when favorite foods like acorns and deer-level twigs have already been eaten) spend a lot of time “grazing” green sedges and dried wildflower leaves. Check out the video below:
The closest deer is eating prairie doc leaves in our back yard. The three deer in the background are eating dried aster and goldenrod leaves.
Over across the street in Somme Prairie and Somme Prairie Grove Nature Preserves, the deer this time of year spend lots of time grazing in areas that we know well as having few woody plants. When we study these deer with binoculars, they’re clearly eating green sedges and dried wildflower leaves. There are huge amount of those foods there.
Are there any useful lessons here?
Perhaps these?
1. It’s interesting to see another example of how degraded ecosystems lead to false conclusions.
2. Many deer at many sites leave the preserves in winter to eat prized shrubs in people’s landscaping across the streets. In a way, this is a form of population control, since many of those deer sooner or later get hit by cars and die. But that’s a very poor solution, for the deer, for the homeowners, and for the folks driving the cars.
3. As many have pointed out, buckthorn berries are edible and nutritious, but buckthorn bark and buds are poisonous (cathartic). So stands of buckthorn that are too high for deer to reach berries – or so low that they’re all branches and no fruit – are the very poor habitats for deer (and most wildlife).
4. All this is another argument for restoring full plant diversity to conservation lands.
Over across the street in Somme Prairie and Somme Prairie Grove Nature Preserves, the deer this time of year spend lots of time grazing in areas that we know well as having few woody plants. When we study these deer with binoculars, they’re clearly eating green sedges and dried wildflower leaves. There are huge amount of those foods there.
Are there any useful lessons here?
Perhaps these?
1. It’s interesting to see another example of how degraded ecosystems lead to false conclusions.
2. Many deer at many sites leave the preserves in winter to eat prized shrubs in people’s landscaping across the streets. In a way, this is a form of population control, since many of those deer sooner or later get hit by cars and die. But that’s a very poor solution, for the deer, for the homeowners, and for the folks driving the cars.
3. As many have pointed out, buckthorn berries are edible and nutritious, but buckthorn bark and buds are poisonous (cathartic). So stands of buckthorn that are too high for deer to reach berries – or so low that they’re all branches and no fruit – are the very poor habitats for deer (and most wildlife).
4. All this is another argument for restoring full plant diversity to conservation lands.
No comments:
Post a Comment