Staff Writer
The whitetail deer of Aroostook County are in a bit of a numerical predicament; harsh winters and increased natural predation has whittled the population down considerably.
This deer was killed by coyotes in early January. Accord to Jerry McLaughlin, the coyotes ate the intestine and left the rest of the carcass.
“In the Madawaska Lake area deer yard, there used to be over 100 deer,” said Maine guide Jerry McLaughlin, “I found four deer in that yard the other day, and now, those deer are down to three, because a the coyote got one. We can’t afford to lose more deer,” McLaughlin added.
“The deer populations in northern Maine has absolutely decreased over the past 35 years,” said Maine Deer and Moose Biologist Lee Kantar. “A lot of different things combined to make things pretty bad for the whitetail, and the contributing factors of the current population goes all the way back to the 1960s and ‘70s,” he explained.
“In Northern Maine, we had a tremendous amount of winter cover for deer, being a lot of spruce and fur trees; we had a big spruce budworm epidemic, which killed a lot of the balsam fur trees and negatively affected the spruce, so there was a tremendous change in the amount of deer wintering areas and the quality of those areas,” he added. “When the epidemic began to clear in the mid ‘80s, we were left with a tremendous loss of deer wintering areas, while at the same time a lot of roads were being created, increasing the accessibility for hunters.”
“Also,” he explained, “the coyote started showing up in northern Maine during the 1950s and ‘60s, and a combination of all of those effects really exerted a lot of pressure on the deer,” he added. “On top of that, the winter of 1971 was one of the worst winters ever, which added additional strain on an already stressed population.”
According to Kantar, northern Maine has a history of harsh winters. The average number of days that the deer are yarded in District Three (which extends from the northern parts of Caribou and Limestone up to the Fort Kent area) is normally 120 days, which means that it’s a tough place for deer to live.
“One of the beneficial factors of eastern Aroostook County is the large amount of farm lands — what we call edge habitat — that is really helpful for deer when spring starts to green up and summer comes on,” Kantar said.
“If you’re a deer, when you get between 90 and 100 days of being yarded up during the winter months, your getting in such poor body condition and your really need to have spring come to provide better food,” Kantar explained. “Last year, in District Three, we had a minimum of 140 days that the deer were yarded up; under those conditions, your going to lose a lot of deer.”
“I’m a Maine guide, and I have a sporting camp in New Sweden and another in Woodland. Many sporting camps in the area won’t even sell a guided deer hunt anymore because the population is so thin,” explained McLaughlin. “Sporting camps are suffering from the loss of the whitetail; the whole state of Maine has lost a lot of revenue because our deer herd’s so low. You can’t sell a deer hunt if there aren’t any deer,” he added.
According to McLaughlin, coyote predation has had a major impact on the deer population.
“Coyote absolutely kill deer,” said Kantar. “There are two critical times for coyotes as far as dealing with coyote and predation on deer, one of those times is during the winter when snow conditions can make it difficult for deer to move, and the other time is during the spring and fawning season, when fawns are susceptible to being eaten by coyotes. It can be a difficult life for them, but a lot of it depends on their habitat, especially during the winter months,” he added.
“Increased levels of snow can decrease the fitness of the deer,” Kantar explained. “The longer winter sticks around, the worse condition the deer are in, and that can make them more susceptible to coyote predation in the winter time.”
With whitetail populations already being so low, some local sportsmen have recently been trying to decrease the coyote population to give whitetail deer a chance. McLaughlin doesn’t consider the increased efforts to have been successful thus far.
“I know one sportsman who has spent over 100 hours over a bait trying to kill a coyote,” McLaughlin explained. “It takes too many man hours to kill one coyote.”
“We’ve had a healthy population of coyotes for a while, though we don’t have an estimate on the size of the population,” said Kantar. “Last year, there were reports of a high coyote population. The higher population led to an increase in occurrences of mange, which can kill off coyotes.”
“Sometimes the coyote has the advantage over the deer, sometimes the deer has the advantage over the coyote,” Kantar added, “but coyotes exert a pressure on the deer population and make it more difficult for the deer population to recover especially when you have these severe winter conditions that go with it.”
“Many local outdoor enthusiasts have formed an association, called the Aroostook County Conservation Association (ACCA),” added McLaughlin, “Our organization is going to try to help the whitetail.”
For more information on the ACCA, please contact Jerry McLaughlin at 986-3140.
Though winters are rough for the whitetail, deep snows and frigid temperatures can make winter a tough season for coyotes as well.
