Big Game Winter Feeding

Snow covers the land and deer and antelope look hungry as they search for food through the cold blanket. Why isn't someone feeding them? That question comes up every time an Idaho winter is severe enough to bring big game animals down out of the hills and into contact with people. To the good-hearted citizen and concerned sportsman the answer may seem simple. Wanting to do the best we can for animals, domestic or wild, is basic human nature. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game wants the best for wildlife too. In addition, the Department is legally required to preserve, protect and manage Idaho's wild game resources. Some people do not understand then, why the Department is cautious about establishing feeding programs and why it may appear reluctant to do so. The reasons for the Department's policies and actions have been formed through decades of experience and study. Once examined, they are not difficult to understand, and they have everything to do with the good of the animals. Overall policy dictates that our wild game populations be maintained under natural conditions and by natural available forage. Winter food abundance and availability is a major limiting factor that can determine the basic size of a big game population. Winter is known as the bottleneck in wildlife management. It is that time of the year when habitat resources may be at a minimum, and there will only be enough food or shelter to go around for a certain number of animals to survive until the spring. In the long run, the habitat ultimately determines the maximum population size for any species. In the short run, it is weather that causes most year-to-year fluctuations in numbers. There are times, however, when unusual weather may create critical periods of stress when forage becomes limited, unavailable, or animals are forced into areas involving public safety. Criteria have been established to determine when to start feeding operations under emergency conditions. If snow depths are over 24 inches on south-facing slopes, and if the temperature has been less than minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit for five days in the preceding 30 days, and if the body condition of animals is judged to be average or below average, then emergency feeding may be considered. Of course, other factors may bring about feeding before these criteria are actually met. If animals are causing excessive depredations to private property, feeding may start earlier. Or if deer, for instance, went into the winter in above average body condition, it might be determined that supplemental feeding was not necessary at all. Those who doubt the effectiveness of this virtual hands off policy should consider that Idaho's huge wilderness areas, where almost no one goes in the winter, sustain some of the largest and healthiest herds of deer and elk in the country. Those herds have survived winter after winter without human help or intervention. Feeding is not the simple act of kindness many people see it to be, and can, in fact, cause more problems than it was meant to solve. Damage to property, either private or public, occurs around feeding sites as animals continue to eat natural plants even as they are fed. Numbers of fed animals may increase through the winter or from one year to the next, causing more damage. Health problems arise when animals concentrate around feed sites; this increases the chances for the spread of diseases. Animals may have difficulty adapting to feeds offered by man. The Department knows that only high-protein diary hay or pelletized alfalfa is suitable for feed, and that each animal needs a minimum amount daily. Too often, these well-meaning individuals do not dispense enough feed for survival, but only enough to keep the animals at the site. It is an expensive operation to feed big game animals in the winter, and the costs are usually extremely high in comparison to the actual number of animals that are fed. The cost to Idaho sportsmen in 1989 was more than $330,000, while fewer than five percent of the state's elk and deer are fed in most years. If an animal goes into the winter in poor body condition, its chances for survival through that winter are greatly reduced. Big game animals spend lots of time in the spring, summer and fall simply eating in order to put on large amounts of fat. When winter arrives, they actually go into a process of controlled starvation as those fat reserves are slowly used up. Along with this they radically reduce their movements for the simple, yet critically important task, of saving energy. That it is why is so important not to harass these animals in the wintertime; they need to rest to stay alive! An often overlooked negative aspect of winter feeding of big game is that it gives the mistaken impression that artificial feeding makes up for the loss of quality winter habitat. Big game animals adapt quickly to new situations, as nature meant them to for survival. They can easily learn new patterns of feeding too, and soon become dependent upon humans for their next meal. The Fish and Game Department has the obligation to all wildlife to keep them as wild as possible. Supplemental feeding can interrupt long established migration behavior. It may also change behavior where increased competition for food in a limited space can cause a higher death rate in fawns and calves. They cannot compete as well, and therefore may not get the nourishment they need. Although nature can at times seem harsh and unjust in the human perspective, it is perfectly natural for 10 - 15 percent of deer and elk to die in even a mild winter. Even more will die in a harsh winter, regardless of our efforts to save them. What we may view as the humane (actually the human) thing to do may not always be, in the short or the long term, in the best interests of the wildlife resources we all love and cherish. The Department of Fish and Game cannot prohibit private individuals from feeding big game animals; however, we strongly discourage it, for the sake of the animals themselves.