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Roy Lukes: White-tailed Deer in Wisconsin

How eagerly my brothers and I, attending grade school in Kewaunee in the 1930s, looked forward to a Sunday afternoon in spring when my Dad would take us out to Lipsky’s Swamp to see the caged deer next to the tavern. It was an exciting event, even though they were enclosed in a large pen several acres in size. My dad’s main objective was to get several bushels of dried peat for his gardening. Ours was to get to scratch the friendly deer’s noses through the fence and to admire the sleek animals.

The deer herd in that part of the state, including Door County, was then on the upswing after having hit a low in the early 1900s. As an example, no deer were reported from either Door or Kewaunee counties in 1912. To better appreciate and more fully understand our number one (official) wildlife animal of Wisconsin, let’s take a brief overall look at the animal and its history in the state.

Deer are browsers, not grazers. They much prefer the tender shoots, twigs and leaves of woody plants than grass-like vegetation. Should they, in their traveling, come across some of their favorite foods they will remain in the area until the supply has been exhausted. Their prime choices include acorns, Beech Nuts, Hazelnuts, apples, corn, cabbage, lettuce and newly fallen leaves. Reading this list makes it easy to understand the fact that deer have adapted, in some areas at least, almost too well for existing conditions.

These animals invariably prefer soft, succulent leaves rather than leathery ones. Plants having bitter or milky juices are most often passed by. How deer (and other wild animals) can instinctively select foods to meet their deficiencies is beautiful to behold. Undoubtedly people would quickly learn too if they were forced to live in the wilderness.

Plainly and simply, the food must provide them with heat and energy, promote growth and reproduction, and protect against deficiency diseases. As the natural food supply becomes over-browsed, coupled with deepening winter snows, the deer must accept food far down on both the scale of palatability and nourishment. Now they resort to their starvation food such as Red Pine, Balsam Fir and the spruces. Balsam Fir stands at the head of the list of winter foods eaten by Wisconsin White-tailed Deer, especially in the northern counties. Obviously this strongly reflects the condition of the winter range of many of these animals.

With most of their natural predators, including Timber Wolves, Lynx and Cougars having been shot, a large number of deer, especially where the snow is deeper, starve to death. One predatory animal, the coyote, is frequently hunted down because they are thought to kill a lot of deer. They don’t! The fact of the matter is that one of the main foods of coyotes are Snowshoe Hares. The Snowshoe Hare eats a tremendous amount of deer browse. Reduce the number of these rodents and you obviously will help the winter deer herd. Better yet, protect the coyote and they will help immeasurably to control the Snowshoe Hare population.

Surprisingly to most people, the 10,000 or so American Indians who occupied our state before we came along experienced fewer White-tailed Deer than we do today. The northwestern quarter of Wisconsin, grown over with huge stands of evergreens and some hardwoods, held fewer than 10 deer per square mile. The northeastern quarter (including our region) contained more swamps and marshes. Here there were 10 to 15 per square mile. However, the southern half of the state, with its miles and miles of beautiful Oak-Maple prairies, supported anywhere from 10-50 deer to the square mile.

Fur traders entered the area in the early 1800s. The Indians, being natural-born traders, unknowingly and eagerly aided in the beginning destruction of their empire. By 1836 Wisconsin was part of a territory and by 1848 a state. As the fur trade declined, the logging industry began to boom. By 1870 as much as one billion board feet of White and Red Pine lumber were being sawed a year. The Civil War had come to an end and the Homestead Act of 1862 was helping to bring more people into the state. By 1889 three and one-half billion board feet of lumber was the annual output!

By the late 1890s the pioneering era was over in the state. Now only the northern hardwoods, Hemlock, Spruce, Balsam Fir and White Cedar remained to be cut. Uncontrolled fires followed the loggers. Greedy land-sharks needed cleared land to sell. Much remaining timber and especially the soil, through deep burning, were destroyed. Watershed protection was greatly damaged, bringing about a high degree of soil erosion. Sadly most of these conditions were preventable had there not been such a degree of human greed and ignorance.

About this time, there still being no well-established and enforced game laws in Wisconsin, the market hunters too had their day. Game was killed off in unbelievable numbers. Some animals – such as Elk, Bison, Wild Turkey and Passenger Pigeon – were to become extinct or extirpated in the state in the following years.

Predatory animals, including the Cougar, Lynx, Marten, Fisher and Wolverine were wiped out of existence or nearly so. Populations of deer, ducks, geese, Prairie Chickens and Sharp-tailed Grouse took a nosedive. By 1910 the deer herd, along with other game animals, had reached an all-time low.

Little by little the burned-over and cleared areas of the state began to produce exactly the edge-type of browse demanded by healthy deer and slowly the population began to climb. They were common by 1940 and overabundant by the early 1950s. This is when good sound research by the Wisconsin Conservation Dept. brought about better knowledge of the carrying capacity of the land and of the annual variable quota of deer kill allowable.

As an example, with a little bit of luck the total Wisconsin deer herd of approximately 1,250,000 in 1992 could yield about 440,000 to the hunters that year. The projected break down was 370,000 killed by gun (125,000 antlered bucks and 245,000 antler-less deer), and 70,000 killed by bow-hunters.

I would be the last to oppose the legal shooting of deer. A proper balance between the deer population and available natural food must be maintained. The variable quota system of killing them appears to have been working well in the past in Wisconsin.

The thing I am very strongly opposed to is the scores of hunters who do not know how or when to fire their rifles, resulting in too many crippled deer and endangered humans. To illustrate this point, I think of a true story told by an old Texas Ranger in a book titled Huntin’ Gun. This old timer knew rifles well and was an excellent shot. At one time during duty he took refuge with an old trapper in his cabin. They got to talking guns that evening and the trapper invited the ranger to accompany him the next morning. His supply of meat was running low.

They had a considerably long ride on their horses to the hunting range the next day. The old ranger thoroughly enjoyed watching the trapper set up the hunt, stalk the game, finally outwit a nice buck and kill it cleanly with one shot. After the trapper had dressed out the animal the ranger told him how he admired his great skill and his fine old rifle. It was almost natural that he ask the trapper, “Do you mind if I fire your rifle to see how it handles?”

Embarrassed and quite sheepishly, the trapper looked up and said, “Gosh, I’d be more than happy to let you fire my rifle, but I can’t. You see, I brought only one cartridge with me today!”

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