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Area hunters are complaining bitterly about the deer season just past. Even after fresh snow fell in some areas, hunters reported seeing few tracks. The conclusion: the same old one, that there are no deer left anymore.
While most of us will spend the next few days surrounded by warmth, food, friends and parties, wildlife is engaged in a hard struggle for survival. The snow and ice storm late this week made life much more difficult for wildlife than for us. The "pretty" deer we admired last summer, that were standing in the middle of a far off field grazing on clover are now holed up in the snow somewhere just trying to survive. Many will be hungry. Their food is buried under ice that they cannot dig through.
You don't navigate the outdoor world long before you see that Mother Nature is a cruel, feisty lady who doesn't care at all about individual specimens in the animal and bird world. Her mandate is "survival of the fittest" and she doesn't care much about how she accomplishes it.
Christmas marks the time when all wildlife begins a concentrated struggle just to survive until spring. They are not singing or dancing around mushrooms, asyour Christmas cards suggested, they are hunkered down, hoping to evade the fox who would happily have them for lunch, the domestic dogs or coyotes that will run them down in the deep snow and hamstring them and begin tearing at their flesh while they are still alive.
Despite the delusional scenes on Christmas cards, there is no way you will ever find a fox and a rabbit sitting placidly under the same pine tree. In real life, the fox and owl would be competing to get the rabbit and cardinal for supper.
Neither are there any mature Bambis protecting their little families. The bucks have lost their antlers and the fawn is as big as his mother. If conditions are mild and food is plentiful they'll all get along as long as each keeps his proper distance from the other.
But when snow is deep and ice covers much of the food supply, the wild pecking order prevails. The buck eats first; the doe next and if there is anything left after that, the fawn may eat. The doe will kick away her fawn if food is scarce. Which is why the young of most species are the first to starve. Mother Nature operates only so the species will survive. She has no concern or "love" for other animals. Every wild creature has something it chases, kills and eats and something that chases, kills and eats it.
The hunter is at the top of this pecking order. Hunting seasons are, in fact, a regulated, humane way to harvest excess animals from the woods, creatures that would not survive a winter if food supplies are scarce.
Much depends on the severity of the winter. Healthy animals in a healthy habitat that is not stressed by over-populations are quite hardy. If snow crusts over, turkeys can walk about in top of it looking for Japanese Barberry, wild grapes and other fruits, and dogwood berries. Icy, crusted snow is tough for deer however. They slip and fall on it, breaking legs and pelvises, lying for weeks dying of starvation slowly or painfully or as easy lunch for coyotes.
Deer can dig around in fluffy snow to find acorns and other browse but deep, fluffy snow is dangerous to turkeys. They fly down from the roost into it and then cannot get purchase to fly out of it again.
Then there are the stressors that humans inflict on winter-weakened wildlife. Some folks think it is great fun to chase deer in the snow with their machines until the animals collapse. They may not realize that they are dooming that animal to a slow death by depleting its energy reserves.
Dogs love to chase deer and do it with relish in the winter. Most deer-chasing dogs are pets who are near the stove on cold winter nights and eat Purina by day but who are allowed outside for long periods and fulfill their natural instincts by chasing animals. Many pet owners refuse to believe their Fido would chase deer but just about any dog will chase deer if the temptation arises.
Wildlife has few benefactors. They simply must endure as best they can, whatever comes their way.
Someday, the Bible promises, the wolf shall lie down with the lamb. But that's not until God himself ushers in the millennium. Until then, the wolf stalks and eats the lamb, the fox eats the grouse, the owl preys on turkey poults, the coyote ravages fawns, the hawk pounces on mice. Boar bears kill their offspring if given half a chance.
Not pretty is it? Animals act on instinct, not emotion. Their struggle is to survive, however they have to do it. Hunters are simply a part of the natural predator-prey cycle on which the outdoor world operates. That's reality, not Disney.