Big Woods Bucks:

Winter Struggles
Surviving harsh conditions

By Hal Blood

The whitetail deer is the most adaptive of all game animals. There are many subspecies of whitetails and they can be found in be found in almost every state in the U.S. plus Canada and Mexico. Anywhere whitetails live there are certain conditions they have learned to adapt to. As for any animal food, shelter and water are the three basic necessities of life. In most areas whitetails can live their entire life in a relatively small area as the basic necessities of life are never too far away. The exception is whitetails living in the northern extent of their range where the winters are cold and snow is measured in feet not inches. These harsh conditions have created a whole different set of circumstances for the deer. 

Deep snow makes it difficult for a deer to travel around in search of food, most of which is buried by it. This causes a deer to exert a lot of energy and burn calories just to eat. This combined with the calories a deer must burn just to stay warm puts a lot of stress on them. Whitetails of the North have adapted to this by migrating to wintering areas or yards. These wintering areas are typically in a coniferous forest where there is a canopy of tall spruce, fir and cedar. This canopy does two things for the deer. It holds a lot of the snowfall, so less reaches the ground underneath. This makes it a lot easier for the deer to move around. It also keeps the temperature underneath warmer. This allows the deer to burn fewer calories to stay warm. 

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