Tennessee Deer Talk: Feeding Deer to Death?

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#3154241 - 02/06/13 07:03 PM

Feeding Deer to Death?

Poser
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Registered: 07/28/10
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Loc: Tennessee

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http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/big-buck-zone/2013/02/are-you-feeding-your-deer-death

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#3154492 - 02/06/13 09:54 PM

Re: Feeding Deer to Death? [Re: Poser]

plinker22
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Registered: 02/07/05
Posts: 8931
Loc: Mountians of East Tennessee

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I don't believe it, how about several referenced studies, showing how many deer die from feeding.

Maybe some of our resident experts will chime in.

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#3154705 - 02/07/13 08:04 AM

Re: Feeding Deer to Death? [Re: plinker22]

stik
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Registered: 03/12/99
Posts: 18427
Loc: lenoir city,tn

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maybe so in the extreme northern climates but not here.

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#3154750 - 02/07/13 08:44 AM

Re: Feeding Deer to Death? [Re: plinker22]

Diehard Hunter
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Registered: 08/01/08
Posts: 5232
Loc: East Tennessee

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Originally Posted By: plinker22

I don't believe it, how about several referenced studies, showing how many deer die from feeding.

Maybe some of our resident experts will chime in.

This is nothing new. Farmers, wildlife biologists, and even pet owners have known for many years that a sudden change in diet can be detrimental to an animal.

In ruminants, the intestinal Flora is adapted to the diet they are consuming. The different species of organisms are adapted to the specific plants the animal eats. Each microbe specializes in a specific plant or plant part. If that plant is suddenly removed from the diet, and stays out of the diet long enough, those microbes die. If the animal then switches back to that plant, it is much less efficient at breaking it down, and could be expending more energy consuming it than it will get from it.

So, Yes, I can see exactly where the author is coming from. If you change the abundance of key organisms in the gut flora of these ruminants, you can cause slow starvation. Just like if you ate celery exclusively. Your stomach would be full, but you lack the intestinal flora to digest it, so you too would starve.

Herbivores are adapted to the plant species in their area. That is why they have limited ranges. That range may be very large, but it is limited.

Here are a few articles you and look over.

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&...epage&q&f=false

http://krex.k-state.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2097/2276/CallieWalker2009.pdf?sequence=1#page=14

http://www.ajas.info/Editor/manuscript/upload/15_125.pdf

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#3155742 - 02/08/13 12:05 AM

Re: Feeding Deer to Death? [Re: Diehard Hunter]

8up
Good ol' Boys
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Registered: 10/14/05
Posts: 2619
Loc: Stewart co.

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In the north this may happen due to the absolute lack of other things to eat. But to me its no worse than yarded up deer starving and having yotes eating on them while they were still alive.

Now take away a true killer winter I think its a different story

Because its scientifically possible does not mean it happens. I lived in Michigan 2001. Deer ate 1000lbs of carrots and beets in 7 days. Oh and spotlighting was legal as long as you were found with no gun and it wasn't after 11:00 pm These baits were no something they found in nature. But while hunting them like this as was the norm and accepted way. I got to watch more deer activity there in a season than I see here in 3 years.

The thing is I noticed something most people have seen and not given much thought. These browers we hunt eat some of everything. I watched them feed across the alfalfa field into our section and eat native grasses on the way to the carrots. They then would feed through the oaks and bedded back in the swamp. Come evening they reversed for the most part.

Doe ratio was probably 10+ :1 and most of those bucks were 1 1/2 yr olds. Most the bucks we did see while hunting were not at the bait, but skirting it or waiting for dark. How did they do that? By eating the acorns, native grasses and alfalfa along the wood line and no doubt a bunch just stayed bedded. I learned to hunt areas they traveled to get to what might be what they might have wanted most. It helped me kill a few bucks but never the big ones we saw in the alfalfa fields at night. None of the kids left unattended in the ice cream parlor decided to commit death by ice cream $\:\)$

Edited by 8up (02/08/13 12:13 AM)
Edit Reason: my .02

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#3155939 - 02/08/13 09:08 AM

Re: Feeding Deer to Death? [Re: 8up]

gil1
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Registered: 04/06/07
Posts: 6119
Loc: Nashville, TN

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I thought the first comment at the end of the story was interesting...

"As many of you know I have battled several times on the topic of food plots. Craig hits a homerun on exlaining why certain food plots are horrible for deer. It's not just the corn and it's certainly not just the guy dumping corn from his bucket. The guy with the standing corn is doing the same damage. Keep in mind this is a winter issue, not a fall issue. Do you not think a turnip does the same damage corn does? Reasons food plots in the winter can and do kill deer: (1)Feeding deer in late fall/winter may disrupt deer migration to natural wintering areas. (2)Supplemental feeding may actually increase predation. (3)Deer require one or two weeks to adjust to new foods. (4)Some foods are not easily digested by deer during winter. (5)Deer compete aggressively for scarce, high-quality foods. (6)Supplementally-fed deer may die from eating too much feed at one time. (7)Deer concentrations at feeding sites may increase the vulnerability of deer to diseases. (8)Supplemental feeding may have long-term impacts on the behavior of deer. (9)Supplemental feeding within a deer wintering area can reduce the forest's ability to shelter deer. (10)Heavy browsing caused by deer concentrated near feeding stations can affect forest regeneration and growth. These are just some reasons to think about how food/kill plots alter your hunting grounds. If it was about the deer would we be planting food plots or just increasing natural habitat? If it was about killing would we be planting food plots or increasing natural habitat? If a fawn learns one year to travel to a food plot to survive,(instead of doing what the deer have been doing naturally to survive for years) and the next year the food plot is not there, what did you do to that deer or maybe that deer herd? Food plots are the same as baiting, whether it be in the winter or fall."

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#3156801 - 02/08/13 08:35 PM

Re: Feeding Deer to Death? [Re: gil1]

8up
Good ol' Boys
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Registered: 10/14/05
Posts: 2619
Loc: Stewart co.

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Gil I agree with the final sentence.

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