> William wrote: > ... > In Texas, corn/maize is used for deer bait. > Please try to persuade anyone you see doing that not to do it, William. After you read the information below, you may want to support a ban on baiting deer with corn in your state, as some other states have done. Corn baiting is not good for deer (results in sick deer), hunters (get the less-healthy meat of sick, malnourished, and infected deer), or the natural habitat. From: The Don'ts and Don'ts of Feeding Deer By Jan Wrede Cibolo Nature Center, Boerne, TX http://www.cibolo.org/learn/documents/deer05.htm <<Winter is always a particularly stressful time for deer because of reduced food sources. This is a time when many of us feel a special need to help them by putting out deer corn. Don't do it! Deer need 12-16% protein in their diet. Corn has 10% and feeding corn to deer is like feeding them high-carbohydrate, low-protein candy. Deer hunters feed corn as a bait, not as a regular diet that builds a healthy deer population. In Kendall and Comal Counties, where many residents are feeding wildlife, white-tailed deer are eating too much "candy" and becoming malnourished. Two different and harmful things are happening. Deer corn often has the invisible aflatoxin mold growing on it. Corn cannot be sold with more than 60 parts per billion (ppb) aflatoxin, but this does not guarantee that is safe for deer and other wildlife. Poor storage and excess humidity can increase the amount of aflatoxin to the point where it is dangerous to wildlife.Also, birds are harmed by aflatoxin levels 20 ppb and above. They often clean up what the deer have missed and thus are even more vulnerable. In suburban areas, where corn is becoming a larger part of their diet, white-tailed deer are suffering from liver disease. Weakened by liver damage, particularly vulnerable deer, such as the very young or old, readily succumb to other ailments. Also, too much corn in a deer's diet can cause a condition called acidosis that kills natural, digestive-tract bacteria. A deer suffering from acidosis can no longer digest even the most nutritious food. Acidosis, aflatoxin or a combination of the two have been diagnosed in deer living in New Braunfels, Bulverde and Garden Ridge. Rufus Stephens, Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist for Kendall and Comal Counties, says, "Don't feed the deer!" He reminds everyone, "Feeding a wild animal is not good for the animal, its habitat or the landscape. If you want to help the deer, it is best to maintain their natural food-native plants. When you see a deer "eating grass," it is really eating clover or some other broad-leafed plant that grows naturally among the grasses. These plants, called forbs, are the deer's favorite and most nutritious food. Deer also browse on shrubs and small trees that we sometimes clear as undesirable underbrush. Keep these and the deer will have their natural food to eat." Mr. Stephens says, "If you must feed something, change to high protein pellets and feed much less! Even better, substitute the feed with a mineral supplement block and a stable source of water." Suitable mineral blocks are available at most feed stores.>> From: Deer http://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/deer.html <<Food & Feeding: Deer are omnivorous opportunists and will feed catholically on grasses, heather, lichen, shoots, bark, leaves, herbs, rushes, buds, nuts, fungi, fruit and berries and even holly and bramble. The type of food consumed depends largely on location and season. For example, grasses, sedges and rushes comprise the bulk of a Red deer's summer diet, whilst shrubs are staple during the winter. Fallow deer will also switch to eating bark during the winter months, whilst Roe deer will eat twiggy litter if conditions become harsh. Similarly, Fallow deer in the New Forest (UK) will feed primarily on heather in the winter, with acorns and other fruits featuring heavily in their diet in the autumn. A study in the journal Mammalia by a group of French scientists found that only six plant items comprised 80 to 90% of the rumen contents of Roe deer, with bramble and honeysuckle present year round. The study also found that the deer switched to eating evergreen plants (e.g. heather and ivy) and some grasses in the autumn and winter, preferring herbs, young leaves and buds of trees (hawthorn, oak and hornbeam) in the spring and summer. ... In Montana, people put out corn and hay for deer over the winter months. Unfortunately, the deer - that have been grazing in spring pastures - don't have the gut microorganisms necessary to digest this food. It is not unknown for deer to starve to death with full stomachs.>> From: Opposition grows for ban on deer baiting Bowhunters, feed mills say an extension would further damage hunting, economy By MEG JONES [log in to unmask] Posted: Nov. 1, 2002 http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=92339 <<Hunters using bow and arrow - who often lure deer to their tree stands with piles of corn - are griping about the ban [on deer baiting]. ... With the ban on feeding and baiting scheduled to expire Nov. 30, the Department of Natural Resources is expected to request an extension because of concerns about the possible spread of chronic wasting disease when deer congregate over bait piles. ... Wildlife biologists say one possible way the disease is spread is through close contact between animals. They also say dumping large amounts of shelled corn and other feed is an unnatural way for deer to eat. ... Hunting enthusiast Rep. DuWayne Johnsrud (R-Eastman) has objections to baiting that go beyond the danger of spreading disease. He calls it a lazy way to hunt. "Heaven forbid that you'd have to go into the woods and spend some time hunting a deer instead of sitting up in a tree and taking your pick of which one has its mouth full of corn. This is not hunting," said Johnsrud, an outspoken opponent of baiting and feeding.>> From: AFLATOXIN TAINTED FEED COULD HURT WILD GAME KINGSVILLE, TX (Oct. 27, 1998) http://www.tamuk.edu/news/archive/arch98/october/aflatoxin.html <<...researchers at Texas A&M University and the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, both at College Station, examined levels of aflatoxin found in bagged corn marketed for sale as deer or wildlife feed at retail outlets across the state. They found almost half of the 100 samples tested contained levels considered potentially hazardous for wildlife. Forty-four percent of those contained levels higher than 20 parts per billion and 20 percent had levels at 100 parts per billion or higher. The Texas Feed and Fertilizer Control Service recommends that grain tested higher than 100 parts per billion not be used to feed free-ranging deer. "The high levels of aflatoxin found in feed corn this year has prompted many to re-evaluate wildlife feeding programs that use corn as a supplement," Fedynich added. "Texas Parks and Wildlife has issued alerts regarding the potential danger of feeding aflatoxin-contaminated feed to wildlife.">> From: DEER MANAGEMENT ISSUES--BAITING / SUPPLEMENTAL FEEDING http://www.alabamawildlife.org/baitingbill/research.asp <<Perhaps the best cumulation of arguments against supplemental feeding was most recently produced by the Wildlife Management Institute (Williamson 2000). In this easily readable and well-referenced brochure, Scott Williamson, formerly a biologist in Texas, states, "When and where such feeding is done, it is undertaken only, if not expressly-for the interest of people, because fed animals almost invariably will not benefit and will very likely be harmed by the practice.">>