Mild winter
Deer sightings expand with regular thaws, mild winter
Everyone’s seen them around this winter — those pesky deer, wandering around the highways and yards in Pictou County communities.
It seems like every time the snow melts, the infamous excess of local white-tailed deer wandering around make their obnoxious — and sometimes dangerous — return.
It should be no surprise the deer are out in full force, with the way the weather has been swinging back and forth in temperature this winter — and with the lack of stable, consistent snow cover.
Because of all those conditions, those deer benefited very greatly from this year’s mild winter.
Jason Power, a mammal biologist with the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, wrote the The News, indicating that mild winters with lower-thannormal snow accumulation and multiple freeze and thaws cycles — basically, what winter has been like in Pictou County this year — can have “mixed effects” on local wildlife.
While some species can benefit from such weather patterns, the same type of weather can be chaotic, and leader to challenges for other species,” wrote Power. The white-tailed deer is definitely one of the former.
Snow-free conditions “increase the variety, abundance and accessibility of food available to deer,” wrote Power.
So all those deer wandering around the park, yards and roadways are probably out for a bite to eat, looking to avail themselves of the abundance of food available to them in Pictou County, uncovered and unimpeded by the snow.
“Deer can move across the landscape more easily in search of food and cover, which also makes them less vulnerable to predators like coyotes and bobcats, who have a clear advantage when snow depths are greater” wrote Power.
Another benefit the whitetailed deer can reap from this year’s mild winter relates to their energy. Power wrote that local deer are able to maintain healthy longer-lasting fat stores with the increased access to food. This has a snowball effect, allowing them more energy to seek out food — in addition to using less energy to stay warm, and seek cover from predators.
“As a result of recent mild winters, the population of deer has increased throughout many parts of the province in recent years,” wrote Power.
To ensure a sustainable harvest of white-tailed deer on a yearly basis, the Department of Natural Resources uses biological data collected from deer across the province to choose the optimal number of antlerless deer hunting permits to be issued every year.