Feeding deer and other wild animals does only harm

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wants people to know that human food — even things like corn — can be poison for deer. And that is in addition to the danger deer, people and family pets can be put in when a human decides to start feeding deer regularly.

It’s also against Montana law, and anyone caught intentionally feeding deer — or even not taking precautions to keep human food from deer — can face penalties.

Libby/Troy area Wildlife Biologist Tonya Chilton-Radandt said that she can understand the desire people have to try to help deer they assume will be hungry after a harsh winter.

Yet, recent information gathered from mule deer in the area as part of a tag-and-release program by FWP has shown that the deer are actually doing quite well and in no need of additional food, she said. And those are the deer living higher up and further from human habitation, where food is more scarce and predators are more common.

Even if they were hungry, though, the things that people are likely to use to lure deer to their yard are more likely to harm than help the deer, she said.

During the winter, deer have been eating things like twigs and Douglas fir needles for months, Chilton-Radandt said. They are slowly transitioning over to less woody food such as grass.

But even that transition takes a gradual adjustment for ruminants such as deer, she said. Something which humans may assume is benign, such as bird seed, can actually be devastating, outright killing a deer.

Ruminants are much more sensitive to the acidity of their food than other animals, Chilton-Radandt said.

“Their system is quite a bit more sensitive than ours,” she said.

The result is similar to colic in a horse, she said. Gases can build up, but the animal keeps eating either out of hunger or because the food tastes good, dying later — within as short a time as 24 hours — with a full belly.

There is also corn acidosis, where the extra acids from the unfamiliar food — which dear scarf up readily — build up and kill the animal.

“I’ve seen it. I’ve done necropsies on deer locally here, where their bellies — their chambers — are literally just full-packed with food,” she said.

But over feeding and poisoning aren’t the only dangers, she said. For one, the large gatherings of deer make them more susceptible to spreading disease than is normal in the wild.

Deer that are attracted to a property or neighborhood because someone is feeding them can lead to more traffic accidents, endangering both the deer and humans, she said.

Some deer can also become aggressive with pets, and Chilton-Radandt said she has seen family pets pummeled to death by deer.

There is also a law against feeding turkeys and pigeons within the Libby city limits, she said.

Bearing the brunt

Kim Annis, the Lincoln and Sanders County bear manager for FWP, said there is one more reason to not be leaving any kind of food — or even livestock — easily accessible: bears.

While FWP puts out general warnings about feeding bears every year, Annis said she has already dealt with two incidents involving one or two grizzly bears along East Side Road, just outside Troy, on March 19.

In one case, the bear tore open a rabbit cage and killed a rabbit. In the other, it broke into a livestock enclosure that wasn’t electrified and killed three domesticated goats.

But bears are omnivores, and even something like a bird feeder can attract them, Annis said.

While there are only 55 grizzly bears estimated in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem, Annis said that makes it that much more important to keep them from seeing humans as a food source.

Not only could familiarity with humans lead to property damage and put human life at danger, it could also mean that one of the already endangered bears still living in this ecosystem would have to be put down.

In addition, there are plenty of black bears living in the area, she said.

From April 1 to Dec. 1, generally, it is considered unsafe to have anything left outdoors — even bird seed — that could attract bears, unless it is enclosed within an electric fence, Annis said.

“Bears follow their stomachs,” she said.

There is assistance available, from financial help with building electric fences to the loan of bear-proof garbage cans, Annis said.

Anyone who needs such assistance, or just has inquiries about bears and bear habits in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem, is welcome to call Annis at 291-1320, she said.