I guess I was not accurate in my understanding of winter death, here–sorry! I just read that in the lower peninsula, especially as it has been warmer lately, winter kill is not a big factor. I think that a larger side effect has been deer eating up small trees excessively, and also the motorcycle/deer and car/deer accidents. I know personally of two very severe motorcycle/deer accidents, and in the last year I think there have been 19 deaths of motor vehicles vs deer, with 11 being with motorcycles (which makes sense).
That happens here, too. My wife’s uncle and his family lived in the Upper Peninsula, where there were increasing wolf populations. They had tales of dogs being stolen off front porches by wolves, and were not very happy about the increasing wolf population.
You have much stricter laws there than here, for white tailed deer, it sounds. We can hunt on any government land that is far enough away from residences. We don’t have roe deer, but when I was young, we were limited to only 1-2 deer/year. Now, we are allowed up to 9, given the situation and location, I think (especially if we take a doe). There are 2 million deer in Michigan, which is thought to be a pretty high number (with 10 million humans). I found a statistic that about 537,000 hunters participated, which is about 5%, here, too.
But people are out of touch with where there food comes from. I think all kids, at each grade level, should be taken to animal farms and slaughter houses and then be taken to farm animal sanctuaries.
I saw some turkeys and deer, and here are some tracks. My dog was really interested in where the turkeys had kicked up the snow to find food. I think the tracks include turkeys; the waddling ones may be from an opossum; and the small ones, that look like somebody put a sock on a finger and dotted it in the snow, maybe a fox, but I’m not sure. They’re too far apart, I think, to be a small fox, at any rate. They could be from a coyote, I suppose. I don’t know much about tracks. Maybe @SkovandOfMitaze does.
Waddlers appear to move one side of their body and then the other side when they walk. Their rear foot does not land in the print of the front foot. Their track is comprised of four prints. Bear, skunk, woodchuck, raccoon, muskrat, beaver, and porcupine are waddlers.
Zig-Zaggers(Perfect Walkers):
Perfect walkers walk very carefully to conserve energy. Their rear paw/hoof will land in the spot where their front paw previously fell. This gait leaves a zig-zag pattern that is easy to spot. Deer, moose, fox, coyote, and bobcat are perfect walkers.
I saw a lot of dots in the snow, mostly at the base of pine trees, and looked up close. I thought they were pieces of dirt, but they moved! They jumped around. I think they are snow fleas.
That reminds me of a roll of film I lost when my camera was stolen in my university days. We’d had freezing rain followed by snow followed by more freezing rain and what that formed along a stream in a nearby park was awesome enough I risked life and limb to get a whole roll of fantastic shots.
When walking on the beach once after clamming an uncle observed that everyone’s walking pattern but mine made a zig-zag; my footprints made straight rows.
My mom said it was the Indian blood.
BTW, a pattern was missed: hoppers! At the beach, especially in the dunes, I found that Knox is a hopper, as were the rabbits.
Now I’m hiking along the Gulf of Mexico. It’s about a 2 mile hike to this isolated part of the beach through the sand dune trails. Closest parking other than that is about 5 miles away. Going to just enjoy the cool water. Worked up a sweat through the dunes. It’s about 68°f right now. Water is still warm enough to swim in. After hiking a bit along the beach going t just roll out my towel, use my backpack as a pillow with my feet in the water listening to waves and wind and eat apples and read my book.
I just went outside with Knox. The sky was covered in dark clouds, except two spots – in the center of one was Jupiter, and in the center of the other was Mars.
