Winter feeding for deer and elk is reserved for emergencies, and F&G is watching for them

Idaho’s snowcapped mountains are entering their postcard phase, and temperatures range from chilling to biting cold. Many of Idaho’s big game animals have migrated down from the mountains and are inhabiting winter range until spring. 

Fish and Game is preparing for emergencies by stockpiling feed and convening winter feeding advisory committees. Feed pellets and other supplies are stored in strategic locations around the state where Fish and Game may need to feed, but that decision isn’t taken lightly, nor should it be.

Healthy herds can survive most Idaho winters

Deer and elk spend months on winter range, but forage is thin, and it usually doesn't provide enough nutrition for them to maintain their weight. They’re running at a caloric deficit and living off the fat they put on earlier in the year. 

One of the most important survival factors is how much fat they carried onto winter range. Healthy animals with abundant body fat can survive most winter conditions, and it’s an inescapable truth that some won’t survive.

Typically, that’s fawns and calves that aren’t fat enough to withstand their first winter, and older animals that are near the end of their natural lives. 

But even in the healthiest animals, fat reserves are limited and must be conserved. 

Give deer and elk a winter break

People can help deer and elk from unnecessarily burning energy by avoiding wintering herds. If you encounter deer and elk while you’re outdoors, don't disturb them. One way to tell you’re too close is if you see animals pay close attention to you and start stirring. That’s more likely to happen if deer and elk see dogs, which they perceive as a predator and a threat.

While a few disturbances aren’t likely to determine the fate of an animal, repeated disturbance may. If you’re out there, others are likely to be as well, so take that into consideration. What you’re doing may seem harmless, but when you factor in repeated disturbances over the weeks and months of winter. It can make a difference, particularly with the fawns and calves battling to survive their first winter.

Keeping the herds and the forage in balance

Fish and Game strives to keep herds within the natural carrying capacity, but winter survival is a complex equation with many moving parts. Essentially, the natural forage should sustain the herds, not supplemental winter feeding, unless it’s an emergency situation. 

Ensuring quality winter-range habitat is a primary way of maintaining robust herds, which is why Fish and Game staff make it a priority on its Wildlife Management Areas to actively manage those lands to provide quality wildlife habitat. 

Supplemental winter feeding is intended to temporarily mitigate for extremely harsh conditions. It's done carefully and typically limited to unusual situations when abnormal weather or temporary problems overwhelm a herd's natural ability to endure winter. 

In some instances, Fish and Game also elects to feed big game animals to prevent damage to agriculture operations, or prevent public safety issues, such as herds wintering near busy highways. Fish and Game also operates one annual feeding station in the Wood River Valley to keep elk out of local communities. 

Summer wildfires can also trigger winter feeding

When large wildfires burn huge swaths of winter range and affects a broad enough area, it might trigger emergency feeding. If Fish and Game can temporarily feed big game herds until natural forage to returns, it’s an option, but not one that’s taken lightly for the reasons to follow.

Winter feeding committees monitor weather and herds

There are winter feeding committees in parts of the state that periodically conduct emergency feeding. These committees provide timely information to Fish and Game regional supervisors so supervisors can decide whether emergency conditions exist and winter feeding is needed. 

Advisory committees monitor snow depth, temperatures and quality of forage on the winter range. Extreme weather, such as five consecutive days when temperatures stay below zero degrees, and snow depths of more than 18 inches on south facing slopes are factors they consider.  

Regardless of the severity of winter, some animals naturally perish. That's an inescapable part of nature, and animals too stressed from winter can die even when they are fed. 

The downsides of feeding big game

It’s human nature to want to feed animals, especially when they appear stressed. We feed our pets, our livestock, and we may have bird feeders in our yards for wild birds. 

But deer and elk don’t fall into those categories, and there are serious downsides to feeding them. 

First, it may not have the effect people think. It is usually difficult, if not impossible, to get feed to all the herds. The largest, fittest animals will often drive the smaller, weaker ones away from the feed, which ironically, are the ones who would benefit the most, while the hardiest would likely survive without the feed. 

Feeding can unnaturally congregate large herds, which can further degrade the available forage by overgrazing it and damaging it for years ahead, feeding can attract predators, and spread disease and parasites between animals. 

Feeding may also short stop herds that are able to migrate to other places that could sustain them. And as past experience has shown, particularly with mule deer, animals fed one winter may return to the same place the following winter expecting to be fed again. 

So while emergency feeding may help some of the herds in some instances, it’s not a fix-all, and there are significant downsides to consider before feeding starts. 

Deer aren’t birds, and unauthorized feeding can cause more harm than good

It’s also important that people don’t start feeding big game animals. Although well intended, feeding big game animals - particularly deer - can lead to a variety of unwanted situations. 

First, people will probably give them the wrong food, and it could be deadly. Mule deer have evolved to survive on low-nutrient plants, and their digestive systems are adapted to it. When sparse, low-nutrient food is replaced by nutrient-rich forage, such as alfalfa or commercial feed, it can shock their system and can lead to deadly digestive ailments. Many wintering deer in Idaho have died with a stomach full of food, but the wrong food. 

Feeding will also attract more animals, and a few deer can quickly turn into dozens, and after they receive food, they’re probably not leaving until spring. 

It’s sad to see animals that appear stressed, and yes, some may ultimately succumb to the stresses of winter, but the bulk herd will survive to be stronger in the long run.