Maine’s Deer Herd May Be In Worse Shape Than Feared
December 14, 2009
The only way that we can tell about what’s really going on with the Maine deer herd is reports from hunters in the field and a look at deer harvest numbers. Then we can guess. We don’t have official deer harvest numbers yet but when we do, I think we may be shocked when we look at tagged deer numbers broken down by regions. The tendencies in the past have been to look only at the overall harvest numbers.
If you will recall, last year the overall deer harvest was down 27% from the 2007 season, a harvest of just over 21,000 deer – the lowest number since 1986. I believe I recall Lee Kantar, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife head deer and moose biologist, say we could expect as much as a 30% decrease. At that time, Maine was in the middle of the winter following the 2007 season and he predicted another drop in harvest numbers. We may have dropped far greater than anyone had predicted. Is there a reason for not being able to predict?
If you haven’t seen John Holyoke’s article in the Bangor Daily News dated 12/10/09, I’ll try to sum it up.
Holyoke reports that deer hunters who ventured into the North Maine Woods, a linking together of private land comprising around 3.5 million acres, had a success rate to bag a Maine buck about that of winning the Tri-State Megabucks.
“We had 5,500 parties enter NMW during November with a harvest of less than 100 deer,” Cowperthwaite wrote. “So odds were one party in 55 shot a deer. Or about one hunter per 120. Or one deer per 35,000 acres. Or one deer per 1.5 townships.”
Al Cowperthwaite, the executive director of North Maine Woods Inc., gathered his information from gates where hunters have to enter and leave this land. He explained that his information wasn’t scientific but he felt it quite accurate.
These numbers don’t stack up well in comparison to other years, although Copperthwaite admits he doesn’t have much data from the past.
And although Cowperthwaite has no similar tally from past years, he said that during one season about 10 years ago hunters took 144 deer out through the Telos Gate alone. This year, staffers counted 18 deer at the Telos Gate.
This is quite sad and beyond dismal. I think we are staring directly into the real possibility of extirpation of the whitetail deer herd in Northern Maine. Could this have been prevented?
I will not disregard MDIFW’s claim that the recent back-to-back severe winters took its toll. I’ll also not shy away from their notion that the deer habitat, particular the wintering yard areas have shrunk so that it too is having a serious impact on deer. What I will harp about is that I don’t think MDIFW is taking serious enough the impact coyotes (and I use that term loosely) are having on the deer population.
Bob Humphrey, in an article in the Maine Outdoor Journal, puts it into writing as well as any Maine outdoor writer I’ve read.
However, deer overabundance is hardly a problem in our state – quite the opposite. Furthermore, according to a 1995 report from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, coyotes accounted for nearly 30 percent of annual deer mortality in Maine, killing as many deer each year as hunters. Fourteen years later, we have more coyotes and fewer deer, so it’s reasonable to assume that percentage is larger, possibly much larger.
The first point Humphrey makes is a good one and one that would do MDIFW a good turn if they paid closer attention. Too many “studies” about coyotes and their impact on deer and ecosystems in general, come from areas where sustaining a whitetail deer herd isn’t a problem. Areas of Maine that have been hit the hardest have never had an overabundance of deer. While MDFIW has been working toward increasing deer herds in these areas, they have not seen the success they hoped for, even when the weather cooperated.
Large predators are devastating on deer when there become too many predators and not enough prey/deer. I have to ask the question as to whether or not this has been considered? Even if one wanted to rely on the claim that coyotes will self-regulate and the numbers would shrink according to the food available, this doesn’t happen overnight. It isn’t simply directly proportional.
History shows us that large predators, wolves and coyotes in particular, if allowed to grow unchecked or via the infamous “natural” method, once they clean out their food sources, they either move on, resort to cannibalism, or their own diseases wipe them out.
Humphrey also points out a statistic that I wasn’t aware of. According to him, a report from the MDIFW claims that 30% of the annual deer mortality in the state of Maine comes from coyotes. How can MDIFW make the claim that the impact of coyotes in Maine is negligible, while killing as many deer as man does?
In his article, Humphrey tells us about a recent study that shows that 22% of coyotes in Maine have genes that can be traced back to wolves. Anyone who has spent anytime in the Maine woods has known that the coyotes Maine has aren’t the ones you see in the South or out West. If we can determine that at least some of the “Eastern Coyotes” in Maine are wolf hybrids, then maybe we shouldn’t put so much emphasis on studies done on coyotes that don’t even habituate the state or in this case, have the same killing patterns.
Wolves we know, are killing machines. All too often we, in our Disney mentality, want to think of the howling wolf in a cute, cuddly and romantic fantasy. We can argue pro and con about whether these large predators are important to our ecosystem but those arguments must include facts. If Maine’s “coyotes” have wolf genes and are a much larger canine than what is found in other parts of the country, then we can conclude that they have a better ability to kill deer and/or larger prey.
And HURRAY to Bob Humphrey! He told a truth about these canine killers that few outdoor writers and media people are willing pass on.
Without going all Farley Mowat on you, coyotes can also keep deer herds healthy by culling the sick and the weak. But they don’t take just the sick and the weak. In a typical Maine winter, deer may represent 50 to 80 percent of the coyote’s diet, according to the IFW report. In a severe winter, when deep snow severely impedes deer mobility, coyotes become opportunity killers. They will literally go from one deer to the next, killing every deer they can, even with a full belly. And the carnage doesn’t stop there.
The sooner we dispel this myth of predators only culling the weak and sick, the sooner we can move on and grow our wildlife management plans to better cope with reality. Some would argue that even if coyotes indiscriminately kill deer there are always other predators and scavengers that will clean it up. That’s partially true but also partially a myth. Studies and on the ground evidence has shown time and again, prey animals such as deer and elk, are killed and gone untouched.
In the North Maine Woods, there is no doubt few deer are left. Coyotes still have to eat. They are not going to starve themselves to death while being restricted to some fictitious menu of only sick and weak prey. We have seen nothing that would indicate the coyote population is shrinking. Depending upon circumstances, coyote numbers can grow easily by 30% per year. When a predator to prey balance becomes skewed, all hell can break loose. All hell has broken loose!
With a diet of deer that comprises 30% of the herd statewide annually and 50% – 80% of their total diet in winter, coyotes are having a very serious impact on the herd. With any hope of rebuilding and/or increasing deer numbers, this element of wildlife management must be brought under control.
We have to wait on the weather. Efforts are underway to protect remaining deer wintering areas. More needs to be done. It will be years, if ever, that deer will return to Northern and Eastern Maine but if we implement programs now, there is hope.
Perhaps one of the best things we can do is admit we don’t know everything, that mistakes have been made and that what was thought to be a really good deer management program isn’t producing the results hoped for. That’s a start. A management program has to include everything that man can control, at least to some degree.
Tom Remington
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[...] a previous article today, I shared a report that with over 5,500 hunters entering the Northern Maine Woods, only 90 deer [...]
Tom Remington hit the nail on the head. I am from PA. and have been hunting northern maine since around 1990 with my brother and cousin. We love to hunt here becuse we can get deep in the woods and and not see another hunter. We always had the chance to see and locate bucks. The last eight years or so its hard to even find any buck sign. All the areas we hunted are now gone because of severe logging and roads right through cedar swamps etc. The beech are all dead on the ridges. The deer yards are gone. I can’t believe the state of maine allows this destruction. There are coyotes all over the place. We see there tracks everywhere and here every night no matter where we hunt. I know for a fact what kind of damage the dogs can do on deer. I’ve seen it first hand in PA. especially during the fawning season. The bears in PA. also prey heavily on the fawns here. Its no different in Maine. There are coyotes shot in PA. yearly that reach over 50 pounds. If the biologists in Maine don’t pressure the agencies to eliminate the doe licences in northern maine for at least a minimum of five years and stop the way the logging companies work, the herd may never recover between the winters, yards being logged, and the large predators. A few years ago my cousin and I drove 65 miles in one day on old grown over back roads with four inches of fresh snow and did not even cut a single deer track. It time for the agencies to wake up and take care of the deer herd. There are going to be alot of outfitters, etc. loosing their livelyhood if something doesn’t change. I hope the agencies start doing whats right!!!!