Supplemental winter feeding of deer

What seems like a good idea, can often do more harm than good.

EACH WINTER, people contact the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) expressing concern for deer. Often these people ask about supplemental winter feeding to help carry the animals through extended periods of heavy snowfall. Many people and organizations volunteer to help with winter feeding efforts.

While the DWR welcomes all the help it can get, supplemental deer feeding is usually not a good idea. Although it sounds like an act of kindness and may even help some animals get through the cold months, it can create major problems. Each link below provides additional information.

• Disease can spread when deer congregate
  
  Deer herds that are concentrated by feeding efforts are more likely to pass along diseases, like tuberculosis and chronic wasting disease, from one animal to the next.
• The wrong food at the wrong time can kill deer
  
  Deer are ruminants with four-part stomachs. Each stomach chamber progressively breaks down woody, leafy and grassy foods into smaller particles. These stomach chambers contain microbes that are essential to digesting food. The type of microbes in deer digestive systems gradually change throughout the year and are very specific to the available food. Suddenly changing a deer's diet can easily lead to the deer eating food that it cannot readily digest. In these situations deer often die with full stomachs.
• Concentrated numbers of deer can damage rangelands
  
  Supplemental feeding concentrates animals into a small areas close to their meals. Because their nutritional needs can't be entirely met at the feeding station, deer continue to forage on surrounding rangelands. The animals quickly overuse the available natural forage, which may never adequately recover.
• Easy food can cause long-term effects on behavior
  
  Wild animals tend to lose their fear of people when they're fed. This loss of wariness can lead to increased encounters between people and deer that don't always turn out well — either for the deer or the people involved. Also deer are creatures of habit, and fed animals tend to return to the same areas the following year. If no supplemental food is there, the animals can suffer more than if they had traveled to their traditional feeding areas. This disruption of traditional migratory patterns can mean long-term consequences on the entire herd.
• Concentrated deer attract predators
  
  When deer are grouped together, they are magnets for predators. A deer herd crowded into a relative small feeding area is also a feeding ground for the predators that prey on deer and fawns.
• Landowner issues and disagreements
  
  When deer and elk are fed, their numbers may increase on neighboring properties where they're not wanted. The DWR often becomes involved in disputes between neighbors when one wants wildlife and the other doesn't. In many cases, one neighbor claims depredation damages to their crops or haystacks while the other feeds animals nearby. Reimbursements from the DWR to these landowners for these damages could have been better spent improving range lands to increase the carrying capacity.
• It's expensive to feed enough deer to make a difference
  
  Feeding deer is not cheap, and not a one-time event. Because of digestive issues, supplemental food must be specially mixed, and once feeding begins, it must continue for several weeks. This cost, depending on the extent of the program, can easily cost many tens of thousands of dollars. Keep in mind that this is money that could have been used to improve deer habitat that provided a long-term solution instead of an emergency fix.
• Public safety is important
  
  Feeding areas, out of necessity, are often near highways and towns. Concentrating deer near these areas can sometimes result in increased traffic accidents and other human/wildlife conflicts.
• Social issues always play a part
  
  As snow depths increase, a well-intentioned public starts requesting supplemental feeding. As a public agency, the DWR must consider these requests. Sometimes public pressure is the determining factor that decides whether or not to feed. In following years, the public's memory of past winter feeding leads to more calls for additional winter feeding. Over time, public expectations for winter feeding can drain agency resources on inappropriate feeding programs that may actually do more harm than good.

Is supplemental winter feeding ever warranted?

A DWR conservation officer pours food into a trough as part of an emergency feeding situation in northern Utah.

Yes, there are sometimes specific emergency situations when supplemental feeding is beneficial. For example, deer herds in critical wintering areas that are caught in unusually deep and long-lasting snow might benefit from winter feeding.

When the DWR considers supplemental feeding, biologists carefully analyze whether the benefits will outweigh the disadvantages. If a decision is made by the agency to proceed, resources are allocated, special food mixtures are determined and the feeding takes place in an organized, targeted and strategic way that maximizes the benefits to the deer while minimizing the possible adverse consequences.

While private supplemental feeding of wildlife is not illegal — except in certain cities that have enacted no feeding ordinances — DWR biologists strongly advise against private individuals and organizations feeding deer. Well-intentioned private feeding endeavors almost always create more problems than they solve. Instead of helping, this kind of feeding can result in higher deer mortality rates and long-term adverse consequences for the herd.

It can be tough on a caring public to avoid the quick fix that deer feeding can offer. People must understand that deer are wild animals and not livestock. Despite the best intentions, winter feeding is usually a last resort and not in the best interest of deer.