predator – The Outdoors Guy

February 7, 2014

Tough times for our white-tailed deer

As most of us have feared, this winter looks like it could be a doozy for our white-tailed deer population. I suppose after a handful of mild winters we are now paying our dues, so to speak.

And bitter cold temperatures this year are the least of the deer’s problem. They can handle the cold but it’s the snow I’m worried about!

Snow conditions, with a weak crust formed by our mid-winter melt and pack, make travel and escape more difficult than usual. So far, we are a long way off the massive snow depth experienced back in 2008- 2009, but with higher than average snowfall this winter and a meagre crust unable to support a deer’s weight, times are tough indeed!

Our friend imacdon has witnessed the results first-hand in these graphic deer kill images taken around his property:

It is very disappointing to think that after more than 5 years of a population on the rebound, our whitetail herd could be in store for another big hit.

And with a healthy, relatively uncontrolled, predator population in eastern ON and western QC our whitetails will need to pull out all the stops this year in order to survive. Since December my trailcams have captured scant few deer images, even in the whitetail wintering area. The number of coyote images captured has; however, remained steady.

I know I am crossing my fingers for the deer this year….and my toes too!

So, what can we do to help? Here are three options (I’ve been practising option #2)

1)Backyard feeding

When carried out properly, supplemental deer feeding is a wonderful past-time and can be of benefit to these animals when snow depth reaches more than 1 metre. Finding the proper balance between protein and fibre for the deer’s diet can be tricky and without knowing it many backyard feeders may actually be hurting the animal’s chances of survival. If you had not started a feeding program during early season, it is probably too late to start now, as the animal’s digestive system would have needed to adapt to the supplemented diet.

2)Improved Access and predator control

There are other ways we can help deer during the colder months besides feeding. By creating new access trails and cutting fresh browse, we greatly increase their food availability and expand travel corridors. A network of hard-packed trails will serve as escape routes from predators. By improving access to winter habitat and cutting additional feed, we go a long way to helping these animals make it through the winter. For folks who are looking to help deer this winter, perhaps get out for a little coyote hunting in areas where it is permitted. It is a challenging sport and less predators around would also help the deer’s chance of survival.

3) Call upon MNR for assistance

Through the Emergency Deer Feeding Program – The MNR ‘s Snow Network for Ontario Wildlife looks at risk assessment and on the very rare occasion will implement an emergency feeding program in certain areas. Over the past 15 years, I believe I’ve only seen this program implemented once! During the winters of 2008-2009 when RECORD snowfall was recorded in Central Canada, no measures were put in place to provide aid to whitetail deer in Ontario. An estimated 30% of the population died-off in just two years!

For more information on the Snow Network for Ontario Wildlife:

http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/stdprodconsume/groups/lr/@mnr/@fw/documents/document/mnr_e001298.pdf

Outdoorsguy

October 1, 2013

Black Bear attack near Havelock

Looks like old blackie got a little rough in the Havelock area this past weekend. Fortunately for Lynn O’Connor of Peterborough, her faithful companions were by her side!

Here’s the article from yesterday’s paper:

(QMI Agency by Sarah Deeth)

Lynn O’Connor, 53, thought she was about to die when a mother bear attacked and bit her in the stomach, but her two dogs saved her life.She is at home recovering from the vicious bear attack near her Belmont-Methuen Township cottage Sunday afternoon.

It was a little after 3:30 p.m. and she was out for a walk with her German shepherds, Jake, 12, and Kyra, 5. Jake is blind, partially deaf and doesn’t move so well, but still loves its daily walk on the 69 acres the couple owns south of Hwy. 7, about 90 minutes northeast of Toronto. Kyra was running in and out of the bushes, chasing squirrels and birds, when O’Connor noticed a bear staring at her.

A few terrifying seconds later the bear attacked.

“It wasn’t interested in the dogs, it just came right for me,” O’Connor said. “It just put me down and just started biting me. The first bite it took, I thought, ‘It’s going to kill me,’” she said.

Jake lunged at the bear and managed to distract it enough to lure it 10 feet away from O’Connor. O’Connor said she heard a yelp. The bear had knocked Jake down, and the dog struggled to get back up. Kyra stepped into the fray, baiting the bear away from Jake, O’Connor said. But the bear was still interested in O’Connor and attacked her again, biting her abdomen, arms and legs.

O’Connor’s husband Jerry, 55, was sitting in their cabin watching a football game when he heard a commotion. He said he hopped on an ATV and followed the screaming. He found his wife in the middle of the path, covered in blood. She had one of her walking sticks in her hand and was poking it into the air, he said. Jake was lying at her feet. Kyra was running down the trail, away from him, but he couldn’t see anything chasing the dog.

Jerry said he put his wife on the ATV, but by then the bear had come back. The dogs continued to protect them, he said, circling the ATV and keeping the bear at bay. Jerry drove Lynn to the cottage and got her in the car.

“She said, ‘We’re not leaving without Jake,” Jerry said.

Out of the corner of his eye Jerry saw something black racing around the corner at them. For one heart-stopping second, he thought it was the bear again. It was Jake. He jumped in the car and the family drove away.

“Those dogs are heroes,” Jerry said. “They were willing to give their lives for her.”

Lynn was released from the hospital Monday morning. The dogs don’t have a mark on them, Jerry said.

Although the investigation is ongoing, in my opinion the behaviour of this bear is very much predatory in nature. The fact that this bruin had returned following the initial attack and continued to pursue O’Connor and her dogs were there to protect her, leads me to a couple of conclusions.

1) Without her dogs present, this bear would have killed and eaten her.

2) This bear will, undoubtedly, turn-out to be a predatory male; responsible for nearly all fatal bear attacks in North America.

The attack does; however, leave one burning question:

Was the bear possibly attracted by Country Music at this summer’s Havelock Jamboree??

Outdoorsguy

December 12, 2012

White-tailed Deer shoulder check

Top level predators like coyotes and wolves are considered some of the greatest hunters in the world. Cunning, stealth and the ability to stalk prey are all characteristics shared by the Canis genus.

In our region, the ever ubiquitous eastern coyote or ‘brush wolf’ as some call them, have adapted nicely to living off the fat of the land. Small mammals, scavenging and white-tail deer compose much of their diet. Whether hunting solitary or in packs, where there are deer, the eastern coyote will not be far behind.

Sometimes even closer than you (& the deer) realize!

In the above photo, you can see a doe walking in the tall grass behind my deer feeder. I have two does hanging around the back these days – one a yearling the other one an older female.

Here in this pic you can see the other doe approaching the feeder (from the right) while the first deer strolls across in the background.

A minute later, the two does can be seen facing each other in a stance which appears to do with proper eating etiquette. When deer feed together, hierarchy usually takes over and the older more dominant animal will usually eat first. It looks to me as though the older doe is explaining that fact to the younger one. (Ears held back are a give-away)

Anyhow, I hadn’t even noticed at first that while the deer were distracted, something was watching them from behind. I tried zooming-in and back tracking through the images I had gathered from that evening to figure out what it was.

Something was behind them and it wasn’t another deer! You can see a pair of eyes at the top-middle of the image.

In this photo taken a couple of seconds later, you can see one doe glance over her shoulder to another set of eye peering at them from out in the field.

In this next image the deer have disappeared and the strange visitor suddenly makes an appearance from the left.

A coyote had been stalking the two deer and got to within 50 feet, by my calculation, before the deer had even realized. The coyote hangs out at the feeder for a moment before taking off himself.

It just goes to prove that whitetails literally need eyes in the back of their head to stay one step ahead of theses pesky coyotes. In this case, the two deer were evidently distracted allowing a predator to close-in to within 50 feet of them before they saw it.

Footnote: The two deer showed-up a couple of days later alive and well, after an up-close-and-personal visit from their woodland nemesis!

Interesting what you’ll find on your trail cam images sometimes….

Outdoorsguy

Here are some neat photos Rick took of a deer standing its ground with a coyote:

Here are a few stills grabbed off the video of the coyote stalking the deer and the deer then stalking the coyote. The video is 13 minutes long.

The first shot shows the coyote walking bye a forkhorn. The second shows the coyote stalking the bedded buck with a second shot showing the coyote under the red arrow. The third shows the coyote closer to the bedded buck Notice the buck is aware of the coyote. The last shot shows two bucks stalking the bedded coyote.

Rick

December 30, 2011

Mature buck taken by Coyotes on Robs property

Our friend Rob St Denis discovered something rather upsetting on his property yesterday.

A big mature whitetail buck had been taken down by coyotes, with the majority of the animal being left for the birds.

“It’s a complete waste of meat” said St Denis of the deer he has seen in trailcam images recently.

“This guy has been passing through my property for the last few months and it would seem he hopped the fence at the wrong time and was killed by coyotes.” he added.

With the ‘wolf-like’ behaviour exhibited by these modern age killing machines, gone are the days when ‘yotes’ were a solitary beast stalking only field mice and rabbits.

St Denis saw clear evidence of a ‘team at work’: “There were 3 sets of distinct tracks in the snow leading away from the site; apparently what little they ate was their fill.”

Rob wants people to realize with these graphic images that even the strong and healthy in our woods are no match for these large predators.

“The big thing here is it shows clearly that coyotes have no problems taking large game (unlike what the environmentalists say that they only eat small game like rabbits and the like.”

One would think that a mature buck like this would be well-equipped to defend against even multiple attackers, but St Denis believes otherwise

“Doesn’t even seem like he gave much chase, the whole mess was within 20′ of where we found him.”

This shocking scene is the grim reality of what our deer, moose and even family pets have to face today.

Do you still believe these predators take only the old and weak? Better ask Rob St Denis about that!

Outdoorsguy

P.S. The image below shows a doe taken by coyotes this past summer from Rob’s property. The coyotes ate only what you see in the photo and never returned. Scavengers took care of the rest: