For years, Monica and I have hung bird feeders outside our windows and enjoy watching them come and go. Depending on the season there are different species of birds and now we have big brown fury ones draining those feeders. Yep, deer have found and empty those feeders daily. For those who do not have bird feeders let me tell, your bird seed is expensive. But being this winter is colder and we have more snow than previous years, I can’t blame them for dining off our bird feeders.

In the fall, deer will build up fat reserves and it’s easy for them to find food, but during the winter months their food source is covered in snow. During this time deer need to adapt as they consume 3 to 6 pounds a day to survive. Woody browse (twigs, bark, evergreen needles) is basically their diet. I can contest to this by the large tree limbs in our yard that broke off due to heavy snow, because in one day most of the branches were gone.

Besides their diet, deer physically adapt naturally for the winter. Their light brown/reddish summer fur coat is replaced with a thicker darker brown fur. The darker fur absorbs more sunlight to help them stay warm. This new longer fur called (guard hairs) is also hollow and traps air to retain body heat. Deer also produces an oil from their skin that not only helps protect them from the colder weather but is a repellent of water and snow too.

Deer also will find shelter a little deeper in the forest from wind. Yarding (groups of deer together) helps them stay warmer and safer in numbers. This shows us that deer are well equipped to survive the winter, but heavy snowfall and extreme periods of cold weather can make it a long hard winter. If you live in an area were feeding deer is LEGAL, putting a pile of corn out once a day will defiantly help them survive this winter.