What to do about the animals????

[donsgal]

This past spring, as many of you know, we suffered a very late and very severe frost. Because of this it looks like there will certainly be no wild Persimmons, no wild any kind of fruit, and it's starting to look like there won't be any nuts or acorns either.

I am really sick to think of how many wild animals are going to starve to death because of this. I know that in our mini-persimmon grove at the farmstead there was always PLENTY of critter-poo containing persimmon seeds around. Lots and lots of it. So I know that many wild animls rely on this food source to make it through the winter.

Those of you who are knowledgeable about such things, can you help me figure out what I can put out to help them? Especially the squirrels this winter? I can go buy nuts, I guess but at $2.99 a pound that isn't going to be very cost effective. I am thinking that maybe I can go south and pick up some acorns and bring them back.

But what about the fruit-eating animals?

Does anyone else have any plans?

donsgal

[Kmac15]

is it to late to plant food for them? in my garden I plant short sunflowers to give the wild birds during the winter, I am sure other animals would eat this as well.

[big rockpile]

You could go with whole Corn from the Feed Store.I would go with Automatic Feeder on a Timer or the Turkeys will eat you out of House and Home

If you have the ground you could plant some Sunflowers and Milo.

big rockpile

[hintonlady]

Sadly this is just all a part of the natural ebb and flow of our planet.

Although not human caused our planet has seen ice ages and greenhouse effects many times over. There were simply no creatures who were able to document it's horror in writing.

If we are fortunate these little critters will just breed like mad in a few seasons when there is food aplenty. This will temporarily also lessen a predator population. (in the meantine watch your farm critters very closely)

If there is no food available now your efforts can only go so far, sometimes even prolonging starvation and suffering. You can only do so much to help the symptom which in no way fixes the disorder. The stronger animals will naturally survive and the remainder will be culled. These animals at worst will evolve to be stronger or make room for something else to evolve in the long run.

Look at the bigger picture and thank a dinosaur for it's sacrifice of future so we can have a present.

[ksfarmer]

Very few wild animals rely on only one type of food supply such as fruit and nuts. Most will find alternate sources of food. The critters who eat persimmons only do this for a temporary feast, by no means their winters supply. The squirrels will, no doubt, miss the usual nut supply, but they also eat buds and new shoots on trees. Deer and Turkeys are mast feeders also, but love acorns and fruit. I think nature will adapt and the animals will survive just fine, tho, there may be more looking to see what man has available for them.

[big rockpile]

Originally Posted by ksfarmer

Very few wild animals rely on only one type of food supply such as fruit and nuts. Most will find alternate sources of food. The critters who eat persimmons only do this for a temporary feast, by no means their winters supply. The squirrels will, no doubt, miss the usual nut supply, but they also eat buds and new shoots on trees. Deer and Turkeys are mast feeders also, but love acorns and fruit. I think nature will adapt and the animals will survive just fine, tho, there may be more looking to see what man has available for them.

The Deer around here count on the Acorns to put fat on.They might make it but they will have as hard a time as I've ever seen around here.

big rockpile

[ksfarmer]

Originally Posted by big rockpile

The Deer around here count on the Acorns to put fat on.They might make it but they will have as hard a time as I've ever seen around here.

big rockpile

I agree with you. They might not be as fat this fall, and the conception rate for the does might not be as high as normal, leading to a smaller crop of fawns next year. This might be true of other animals too.

[Wolf mom]

Whatever you do won't be enough.

That said, I think this is mother nature's way of keeping the population in check.
We are over run here with elk due to man's interference, and have to build high fences, keep dogs, etc. in order to have gardens & orchards. My next door neighbour just had to mend a 7' fence 3 elk got into last week.

We're in the 8th year of a draught & have to fence each evergreen tree as the rabbits eat the bark & needles in the winter.

[big rockpile]

Like a guy said in the paper last week.Even though it is illegal the ones baiting will have a good season.

big rockpile

[Maura]

The animals that are suffering from food shortage during their breeding season will have fewer babies. Squirrels and rabbits and many other critters usually have more than one litter in a year. This year perhaps they will only have one, or will have fewer babies in each litter. Does that twinned this year will have a single next year, and perhaps their 2007 offspring will be smaller than their parents. I'm sure they will find enough food to survive, but perhaps not to "thrive".

[moonwolf]

wild creatures are adaptable to natures bounties, as well as inequities.
If there is less available for them, then reproduction compensates by being lowered, thus having less year class of stock for that particular year. Some species might benefit at the demise of others. Human interference too much in these cycles is generally counterproductive no matter how much emotions play into it. Animal size also could be a factor, being smaller with less fat reserves for the prey species and that could spell a temporary bounty for predator species. Believe it or not, nature knows what to do whether humans stand by and do nothing, or if they provide extra feed dependence. It may help some to feed deer late in the winter and not much before. As they go into spring the deer pellets may give them the needed nourishment, but to feed hay is bad news at that time for their digestive systems.
If it's a mild winter with enough biomass feed stock in the grasses available to them, that should be sufficient to carry them through without the 'fruits and nuts', which really is only a partial entity of their diets.
An ongoing severe drought, or a very large snow depth too long into spring would be very detremental. If it's an average year after the frost losses with biomass growth, I would expect it probably won't befall to heavily on a wildlife rebound next year.

[Rocky Fields]

Hey.

I guarantee you the squirrels will survive without you putting out nuts this winter.

RF

[pancho]

Sometimes putting out feed for the animals causes more problems for them than it helps. It will draw the animals closer into a smaller space therefore causing a much worse shortage of food in that area. If the person who is feeding decides to stop feeding sometimes during the winter all of those animals drawn into the easy food will not have any other food.

[Happy Utahn]

Most common animals are common because they are both adaptable and resilient. Our problem here (southern Utah) is jackrabbits-- they're everywhere, they eat everything, and they haven't read the manual about things they're not supposed to like. It's not unusual to see 20-30 rabbits on our 1/2 mile road when we come home. And we have to cage everything we plant, from flowers to trees.

The cause of this overpopulation is people killing coyotes and other predators. But the guy at the extension service says they also run in cycles-- every 10-12 years, a disease comes along and wipes them out, and then you don't see rabbits for a while. But it doesn't kill them all, and the cycle begins again.

I hate to see animals suffer, but I also know how easy it is to throw the balance off and make things worse.