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Winter is taking a toll on deer herd in West Island
Food is scarce. Deep snow, late spring make meals hard to find
DAVID JOHNSTON
The Gazette
Monday, March 31, 2008
COURTESY OF BARRY SOLMAN / These deer were spotted in Ste. Anne on March 23.
Gary West was snowshoeing through the woods north of Highway 40 in the West Island last week when he came across a dead deer, the second dead white-tailed deer he has seen in the area in the past month.
Whether or not the deaths were caused by starvation is difficult to say. But wildlife experts concede that Montreal's heaviest snowfall since 1971, and the continuing deep snow cover this late in March, has made it extremely difficult for Montreal Island's deer herd to feed.
Heavy snow cover in early spring means buds and other undergrowth that deer normally eat is unavailable. At the same time, deep snow makes mobility difficult; energy spent searching for food can outstrip energy derived from eating it.
"I see the deer are starting to eat the bark off the trees now," West, a resident of Ste. Anne de Bellevue, said of the herd that is concentrated in western Pierrefonds, Senneville and Ste. Anne de Bellevue.
In recent days, the increasing number of deer sightings near busy intersections north of Highway 40 has been another indication of the herd's nutritional stress. At the same time, it has made the herd's plight a much more public phenomenon than shy deer normally like.
On March 23, for example, local wildlife photographer Barry Solman came across three deer huddled at the corner of Morgan Blvd. and Ste. Marie Rd., north of the Morgan exit on Highway 40. It was 8 a.m. on Easter Sunday and a brilliant sun was rising when Solman came across the trio.
West said he has seen deer in groups of "four or five, or seven and eight" and as many as 18 together at any one time.
In 2005, employees of the Laboratoire de Santé publique du Québec on Ste. Marie counted 38 deer from behind their office building. Beyond that, there is no firm data to support a guess about the size of the herd.
Jonathan Luce, curator of animals and birds at the Ecomuseum, the private, non-profit educational wildlife park on Ste. Marie in Ste. Anne, said there is no doubt that the West Island deer are struggling this winter.
"There are record number of deer right now in Quebec, including on Montreal Island (all in the West Island), and with the heavy snow, it probably means a natural reduction is taking place."
It isn't just the difficulty in finding food, Luce said. Deer, like humans, can slip on snow-concealed ice patches and break limbs. A deer that breaks a leg leaves himself vulnerable to coyotes.
In fact, the first of the two deer that West found while hiking in the woods had been partially eaten by the time he came upon it.
West, who grew up in the Gaspé and is familiar with coyote tracks, said he
didn't notice any tracks around the carcass. But generally speaking, he said, he has seen coyote tracks in the area.