North Dakota Game and Fish wardens started hearing of dozens of whitetail deer stranded in wheat fields around the tiny town of Zahl in late January. The western prairies had been shellacked by one winter storm after the other, with snow drifted 6 to 8 feet deep in places and wind chills in the -50 degree range. Then, on Feb. 10, western North Dakota was blasted by more than a foot of snow pushed by winds that whipped to 50mph. The deer started tipping over. Game wardens collected dozens of deer from the fields around Zahl, loaded them in trailers and hauled them back to the regional office in Williston. “It looked like they were emaciated and starved to death on their feet,” said a Game and Fish biologist. “But we had to rule out poisoned grain or some other cause of death.” The carcasses were necropsied by a state veterinarian, who determined that the deer had indeed starved to death, unable to paw through the heavy snow cover to replace calories robbed by the intense cold. “There was just no fat left on them,” said the biologist. “Generally we don’t lose whole herds of deer to winterkill,” said the biologist. “We generally see the effects of a hard winter the following spring, with the loss of the fawn crop. This gives you an idea of the winter we’ve been having.” The winter didn’t discriminate. Mature bucks, yearlings and mature does all died en masse, often after listlessly standing in the wheat fields for days. Whitetail deer have been expanding their range in western North Dakota over the past decade, thriving in the dense cover provided by large expanses of CRP land in the area. Mule deer also occupy western North Dakota, but in the winter, muleys tend to head to rolling, hilly country buffeted by winds that clear snow off the slopes so they can feed. This winter probably set the whitetail expansion back several years in many places of the state.
Though it may be disturbing, it was bound to happen. With all of the mild winters for more than a decade, whitetails have moved into areas where they traditionally are not. Mother Nature can be a bizich, but shes just doing her job.
you noticed that too? I was thinking it was a bit weird of him. Sad to see so much waste. And also makes me question the ND DNR. Why wouldn't they have stepped in here to help? I realise that ND can be remote, but you'd think that there would've been something they could have done.
Yeah it certainly does happen. Thing is, we never get to actually see it in that magnitude until someone takes a picture for the internet. We may hear about it but seeing it is more "personal" or "real". I read alot about it in Heart and Blood, Living with Deer in America. By Richard Nelson. The power of the internet.
I'm not all that suprised to see that. It has been a LONG and BRUTAL winter around this part of the country. I have been concerned about how many deer didn't make it through. I live in Fargo, ND but hunt in MN where I grew up.
