Deer in trouble this winter?

[Fenelon]

Only the second week in February and already the OWSI (Ontario Winter Severity Index) and SDI (snow depth index) is looking pretty grim. I'm at about 64cm in the closed hardwood stands on my property near Fenelon alls

[newbiehunter]

Only the second week in February and already the OWSI (Ontario Winter Severity Index) and SDI (snow depth index) is looking pretty grim. I'm at about 64cm in the closed hardwood stands on my property near Fenelon alls

They say that 50in of snow over 2-3 week period is pretty bad for any angulates
On the other hand, the rivers will hopefully fill up next season

Hard to have one without the other

[glen]

Deer that are in an area of food should be ok. If they have to travel at all because they ate everything available it ain’t looking good.
Turkeys might be all gone.

[gbk]

Impact will happen if this amount of snow stays for very long time.End of March-mid April ish can be bad in certain areas with limited food supply.

Hovewer-very bad wipe out happens at :two years-two months with two feet of snow.

All this is out the window and major starvation may/will happen if serious ice covers the snow for extended length(see the infamous 2013-2014 winter)

[fishfood]

Had to get to the back trailer the other day was waist deep. You can add another ft to that today and just saw orillia was calling for another 30 to 60 cm starting tonight into Tue from the squalls.

Probably a good 4 ft in the yard now port bolster .



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[Fenelon]

Another 33cm here in the past 12 hours. The snow is now over 100cm in the closed hardwood stands at my place in Fenelon now (north end of WMU 75). I cannot even think how bad it must be in the Huntsville-Gravenhurst area where pics last week showed literally 6-7 feet of snow. The Hindon 2 snowcourse in Haliburton Co. (Hwy 118) is over 150cm. No predicted miraculous thaws coming. Only more snow. I'm thinking we've lost the 2025 fawn crop and probably this year's yearlings in central WMU's. Ten bucks says MNR still issues the same number of antlerless tags and hunters will be foolish enough to harvest the tiny percentage of does and fawns that somehow managed to make it through. Everyone who likes to deer hunt and eat venison needs to Google the definition for the proverbial " what does shooting oneself in the foot ,mean?".

[Fenelon]

Felt bad for the 40 turkeys and the snow Buntings at our place today. Got the tractor out and snow-blowed through a meter of snow to make a cleared area. Hand fed them some cracked corn and the turkeys were coming to within three feet of me. I had a bag of leftover feed wheat so I threw some of that out as well.

[ninepointer]

I'm thinking we've lost the 2025 fawn crop and probably this year's yearlings in central WMU's. Ten bucks says MNR still issues the same number of antlerless tags and hunters will be foolish enough to harvest the tiny percentage of does and fawns that somehow managed to make it through. Everyone who likes to deer hunt and eat venison needs to Google the definition for the proverbial " what does shooting oneself in the foot ,mean?".

Unfortunately we have good reason to fear this. We've seen this movie before. Over the course of the last 30 years I've watched the Loring deer herd get devastated. Even when everyone could see the writing on the wall, the MNR was still giving out doe tags like candy.

[Species8472]

On the flat in my backyard:

[BoltgunBill]

Winter is hard for many wildlife. Nature is unforgiving.