This may have serious implications in assessing the effects of IC on a population. Click here to find out more . Creating A Metabolic Profile For white-tailed deer in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York, winters are often long and food supplies are short. Deer have adapted to this environment by building fat reserves during the summer and fall that provide energy through the winter. People frequently supplement the natural winter food by providing deer with foods like corn, hay and apples.
Some organizations spend tens of thousands of dollars a year to feed hundreds of deer each winter.
Logic seems to dictate that providing supplemental food pays dividends in terms of improved nutritional condition of deer and increased survival, and the likelihood of seeing more deer in the summer and fall. However, knowledge of the physiology and behavior of deer casts some doubt on this logic. Our research reveals interesting answers. The Saint Lawrence Plain Region of northern New York State is a predominantly agricultural landscape that is home to a high percentage of the northeast's grassland-nesting birds. Due to widespread farm abandonment over the past thirty years, the natural process of plant succession has added numerous patchy fragments of shrub and forest habitat to the landscape.