GUNNISON, Colo.—The Colorado Wildlife Commission has authorized funds to feed wildlife in the Gunnison Basin because of the extreme weather.
Wildlife biologists worry that frigid temperatures and deep snow are making it tough for deer and other big game to find food and they want to prevent widespread deaths among the herds in western Colorado.
Wildlife commissioners voted Thursday to spend $160,000 in discretionary funds to start the emergency feeding. Division of Wildlife director Tom Remington said the total cost could run from $500,000 to nearly $1 million.
The state plans to bring in tons of specially formulated feed for the roughly 21,000 mule deer in the Gunnison area. The feed is a wafer composed of wheat and other grains, dehydrated alfalfa and cottonseed meal.
State wildlife officers are urging people not to feed the animals because the wrong food—hay, pet food, fruits, vegetables, table scraps—will harm them.
“Deer require a very specific diet,” state wildlife biologist Don Masden said. “If they eat the wrong food they’ll just die with a full stomach.”
Wildlife officers are focusing on deer because it’s difficult for them to push through deep, crusted snow to get to food.
Gary Hausler, a rancher in the Gunnison Basin, said the deer are in danger.
“They are having a real tough time,” said Hausler, who has volunteered to help with the feeding . “This year’s fawns are in snow almost over their heads. The adults are in snow up over their bellies.”
Biologists said elk and bighorn sheep are better adapted to survive severe winters. Elk can eat a wider variety of food and because they’re bigger than deer, can push and dig through deep snow to find food.
Bighorn sheep live in steep areas that don’t hold snow, so they aren’t as affected by the snow depth.
Tom Spezze, southwest regional manager of the Colorado Division of Wildlife, said the roughly 600 pronghorns in the area could also be in trouble.
Spezze told the Colorado Wildlife Commission that conditions are approaching those of the winter of 1978-79, when 70 percent of mule-deer population died.
“We were stacking dead deer like cordwood and burning them,” Spezze said.
Recent storms have increased Colorado’s snowpack to 126 percent of its 30 year average. Snowpack in Colorado is the source of much of the water that feeds the region.
