Snow travel

I was wearing muck boots instead of snowshoes when I took Bear for a walk today, so when we detoured into the woods I sank in with every step. The dogs leapt joyously about like little springboks, but then woodland travels are recreation to them instead of occupation. A wide path behind our house was dotted with the deep imprints of resting deer and laced with their tracks. With no food bowls, these deer probably didn’t appreciate a deep cover of late winter snow. I often find deer beds in the spruce stand, where the ground cover is thinner because the evergreen branches intercept a good amount of snow. Worse for small animals who use the snow for shelter and cover, but better for those of us too big to tunnel.

Deer and most animals find paths of least resistance, and even the dogs readily follow an existing trail in the snow. Deer tracks often follow the driveway, or the trails at work. One aspect of roadways that make them so deadly to our fellow creatures is that they are inviting for travel, although frequent vehicle traffic may make them less so. A common combination of mowed areas and sheltering tree lines makes them attractive as hunting grounds for certain raptors. Hence the ease of seeing red-tails on the highway up to Snowstorm City, but there are less pleasant consequences as well. One study found many dead rough-legged hawks near roads, some of which had been shot by humans who also prefer easy paths.

Late winter is a dangerous time for herbivores because food supplies have been heavily exploited but the cold and often the conditions still require extra energy. Females have the additional burden of carrying one (or more) fetus which will be born in late spring. Deep snows would make stressed deer vulnerable to predation. Winter die-off, while very unfortunate for the individual, can function to decrease competition for scarce resources in the remaining population and results in healthier herds.

At one point, human hunters almost eradicated white-tailed deer in the northeast, but nowadays we’re busy encouraging them to overpopulate. When not feeding them directly, we provide more food to get them through the winter by managing for young forests, which have tasty young trees and sprouts, and planting edible (to deer) landscaping. We’ve decimated or extirpated predator populations. Human predation on deer for sport is less than optimal as long-term population control because humans like to target big, healthy males, whose genes would benefit the population, and are reluctant to kill females who are the real reproductive powerhouses. Ten does can have as many fawns with one buck as with ten. Killing fawns also reduces the reproductive future of the population, but while fawns are the easiest prey for non-human predators, laws and mores prohibit human hunters from taking them.

Although white-tailed deer are native species, their ascendance negatively affects many of our native plants. Their browsing on young trees can inhibit forest regrowth and provide for the increase of less palatable exotic species. Fortunately this edge species spends less time in our forest as the warm seasons begin, because they particularly like to dine on my favorite spring flowers.