September 2023 - 44

WHY FEED ELK BUT NOT DEER?
Some people might wonder why Wyoming
doesn't feed deer during tough winters.
After all, hasn't Wyoming been feeding elk
for more than a century? Is the situation with
deer really that different? The short answer
is yes. Emergency feeding of deer " would be
logistically very difficult, with limited effects
and some pretty significant drawbacks, " said
John Lund, Game and Fish wildlife supervisor
in the Pinedale region.
Though elk were initially fed in western Wyoming
to help prevent winterkill, they are now
fed at 22 state feedgrounds and the National
Elk Refuge primarily to prevent conflict with
livestock operations. The feeding program is
designed to keep elk away from haystacks and
feedlines on private land and reduce the risk of
elk transmitting brucellosis to cattle.
Elk travel familiar paths to the feedgrounds
where the infrastructure for feeding them is
already in place. They more readily tolerate a
hay diet, which they're eased onto in late fall
or early winter. But deer are scattered across
a huge winter range. Their highly specialized
digestive system can't process hay, particularly
(Photo by Mark Gocke/WGFD)
in winter. Emergency feeding of deer would
require the use of specially designed feed, and
wildlife managers wouldn't be able to wait to
evaluate winter severity before starting to feed.
" You would have to start early, when you can't
predict how hard the winter is going to be, "
Lund explained. Efforts would also have to
cover a broad geographic area. " This past winter
you would have had to basically feed deer
from Pinedale to Rock Springs, " Lund added.
Large-scale feeding of deer would run into
some of the same problems as backyard
feeding, including the potential to shortstop
migrations, which could leave deer dependent
over the long term, and to spread disease -
including CWD - among large gatherings of
animals. Disease transmission also is a concern
at the elk feedgrounds, where managers try to
mitigate risk by feeding over shorter seasons,
spreading feed over a large area and conducting
disease surveillance.
- Julie Lue
see the rumen full of sloshy fluid and food,
but the animal itself is dehydrated because
all its fluid is being sucked into the rumen
rather than hydrating the cells of its body, "
Ramsey added. To top things off, the lactic
acid eventually reaches the bloodstream at
dangerous levels.
At this point, most animals may look
healthy, but can die of acidosis within one or
two days. Artificially fed deer, elk and moose
also can succumb to enterotoxemia, a deadly
disease caused by the overgrowth of Clostridium
bacteria in the stomach. And they can die
simply because they gorge on a large quantity
of food they are unable to process. Ramsey
said when skinny, starving deer in late winter
or early spring come across a haystack stored
for cattle, " Rather than going out and looking
for browse to eat, which their stomach has
adapted to, they end up standing there and
starving to death. "
That's not to throw blame at ranchers. " They
don't want deer or elk eating food meant for
horses or cattle, but it can be hard to keep
determined wildlife away from haystacks, "
Ramsey said.
42 | September 2023
FATAL ATTRACTION
Digestive diseases aren't killing cervids at
levels that affect entire herds. But according to
Samantha Allen, Wyoming state wildlife veterinarian
with Game and Fish, " From a disease
perspective, the more that you're congregating
artificially, that increases the likelihood of
spreading certain pathogens. " These include
ectoparasites and diseases like necrobacillosis,
brucellosis, and chronic wasting disease.
One of the biggest concerns is CWD, an
always-fatal neurological disease that affects
members of the deer family. Transmitted
through an animal's urine, blood, feces, saliva
and body tissues, the disease can be found in
31 states, including most of Wyoming. Anything
that unnaturally concentrates deer, elk or
moose has the potential to accelerate its spread.
Animals that contract CWD don't drop
dead immediately. They may look normal for
months or years before showing symptoms.
But once infected, they're doomed. The disease
can affect large numbers of animals; mule
deer populations in Colorado and Wyoming
have declined where CWD has been present
for decades.
September 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2023
