Had a visitor this morning

I recently (last year) moved into the woods next to Greenwood Lake, NY. Hewitt State Forest. In the past year we have not seen a single deer, but many black bears. I ride my quad up in the woods a lot, not a single deer, but I see bear almost every weekend when its warm out. Also have cougars and coyotes up here, as I see pix of them from my hunter friends.
But not a single deer!?!? Where did they go?
 
Deer are a prey animal. They've been shot out or killed by the predators you speak of. They also go completely nocturnal when under these pressures
 
SloBurn said:
I recently (last year) moved into the woods next to Greenwood Lake, NY. Hewitt State Forest. In the past year we have not seen a single deer, but many black bears. I ride my quad up in the woods a lot, not a single deer, but I see bear almost every weekend when its warm out. Also have cougars and coyotes up here, as I see pix of them from my hunter friends.
But not a single deer!?!? Where did they go?
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I don't know about your area, it could be you're not looking in the right spot.:)

In my area there are not the amount of deer there used to be either. A recent study in WI found over 60% of fawns are killed by bears, bobcats, and other predators.

My personal opinion for my part of northern Wisconsin is this. More predators or larger number of predators killing deer large and small. Wolves sometimes kill just to kill, kind of like a weasel in a chicken coop.

Increased competition for food. We used to have -0- turkeys up here, now we have lots. Turkeys eat many things that deer eat. Acorns through fall and into winter are important to many animals, now we got turkeys competing for them too.

Reduced baiting and wildlife feeding quantities. This was usually easy food, easy energy for deer to obtain. Now they have to rely more back on mother nature. Once it requires more energy to find food than what they get out of it they'll quit eating. They'll live off themselves, a doe will actually absorb a fetus to survive...no fawn in the spring.

Then there's weather conditions. This year in northern Wisconsin is going to be rough on them. Snow came early and stayed
 
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spikedaddy99 said:
My first day EVER bow hunting (here in Wi) a bobcat came and sat at the base of my stand. I was sure it was coming up the tree to gouge my eyes out. It finally saw me, I flinched at it, and it scrammed. Then 2 years ago 1 had 2 kits in our backyard (well, 40 acres) and was teaching them how to hunt...my wifes chickens...
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Wait until you have a bear get curious and thinking about climbing up by you.:eek: I used to carry a flu-flu with rubber knobby on it. If a bear came in and started being a pig on the bait pile I'd zap it in the ribs with the flu-flu. If he was already standing up with his feet on the tree stand ladder I didn't do that, just talk to him and tell him to go away.:p
 
We have to dodge the wild turkeys, just to get out of our driveway, sometimes. Note to self, don't chase a hen when she has chicks or eggs nearby. The entire flock will chase you down and gobble you to death.

It also appears that yes indeed, the deer herd does, in fact, own the whole damned road.
 
Carpediem44DB said:
View attachment 79272
We have lived on a country property since the early seventies. Over the years we have seen many different species of wild life wonder around the property and other than squirrels most stay well away from the house and our dogs. This morning we had a yearling buck wonder over, jump the rope fence and spend about 1/2 hr playing with our dogs and even walking right up to me and allowing me to pet it. Blew my mind.
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That was pretty cool!
 
atrick said:
They're pretty till one runs in front of your car, truck or motorcycle!!!
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Got so close to hitting a doe years ago on a 250R enduro that I kicked it in the head to get it to turn. Had to pull over and gather myself. She shook her head a few times and cantered away like nothing happen.
 
Kwik said:
Got so close to hitting a doe years ago on a 250R enduro that I kicked it in the head to get it to turn. Had to pull over and gather myself. She shook her head a few times and cantered away like nothing happen.
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Me and wife hit one in Aug on my full dresser, came out of the woods in a full run, I knew what was coming tried like hell to miss in but did manage to get bike almost stopped before I hit it. I broke 3 ribs and had 32 stitches in my forehead, wife broke her arm and got a concussion not counting the road rash but we got up and walked away so that was good thing. Bad thing it was 12:30 in the afternoon so didn't expect it at that moment but hey wrong place at wrong time so I'm not a big fan of deer!!! We got way to many deer here and they are out 24/7 on the roads!
 
Thank you for sharing, that IS amazing. You will need to get a dog bed for the deer :)
 
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bobeast said:
We have to dodge the wild turkeys, just to get out of our driveway, sometimes. Note to self, don't chase a hen when she has chicks or eggs nearby. The entire flock will chase you down and gobble you to death.

It also appears that yes indeed, the deer herd does, in fact, own the whole damned road.
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We have a good assortment of wildlife in our West Michigan yard as well. Here is a recent pic of the local Turkeys.
 
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We live in the suburbs. We have about 5 acres of old growth woods behind our house. We see wildlife all the time. I have one picture that has 15 deer lying down in our backyard for hours.

This deer walked right up to Lily our cat. They stared at each other for a few minutes.

Two fox flew threw my backyard yesterday.
 
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