"Springtime" on the Range

By Edward Bottum, Wildlife Habitat Biologist Southwest Region I had the most remarkable, wonderful and satisfying day at work last month. For most of that very windy day, I was walking up, down and around steep, rocky, sometimes snowy slopes sowing sagebrush seed over areas burned in wildfires last summer. I spent the day helping rehabilitate the habitat that mule deer depend on during winter. When I got back to the office, phone messages were waiting for me about a deer trapped in a backyard. By the time I got there, the doe mule deer had been there all day and had managed to stick her head between the vertical bars of the iron fence more than once. Together with the homeowner and some neighbors, I tried to "herd" the doe toward the open gate but to her I suspect that the entire fence looked the same. She got her head stuck between the bars again. I approached her to spread the bars and when I touched her I could feel the weakness in her body. So, I simply grabbed her legs, folded them against her body, picked her up, and waddled over to the gate. When I put her down, she got to her feet and walked back into the adjacent Boise River Wildlife Management Area. I was surprised by her lack of strength, even though she looked fine and had jumped over a five foot high fence only that morning, which brings me to the point of this article. When deer arrive on their winter range, they will - hopefully - have spent the summer eating abundant, nutritious forage making them fat and healthy. During winter months, they will augment the relatively small amount of forage available with stored body reserves (fat) while waiting for spring. It is a race against time as deer try to avoid too much weight loss (and ultimately, starvation) and hold on until winter breaks and forage is once again available. Other strategies help them conserve precious energy as well. They reduce their daily energy needs by seeking out areas where they can rest and get out of the wind or into the sunshine. They seek out secluded areas where they won't be disturbed. Unfortunately, these are often the very areas that are hardest to find. The foothills seem to call to us humans on warm late winter and early spring days. We want to get out and see something green, smell the moist earth, find some antlers or see some wildlife. But you should remember that from a deer's perspective, winter isn't over yet. They are still in that low food intake/weight loss mode; they will be until nutritious plants become abundant again in late spring and early summer. Your presence on their winter range disturbs them. Seeing your dog is even more disturbing, especially if the pet is off leash. Many times deer will see or hear you and flee before you even become aware of their presence (if you ever do). You will have disturbed them. You will have forced them to use some of their precious body fat reserves to move away. You will have decreased their survival odds and probably won't even know it. For the sake of wintering mule deer, please consider staying out of winter range to recreate until spring is fairly bursting. You'll know when its time.