Reported 1st by News 13 WGME – Officials with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department say they found two feeding sites in South Hampton last week with items high in carbohydrates, like hay, deer pellets and deer corn. Maine officials say corn is the top supplement people give to deer. The intentions are typically good, as people are trying to help them through the winter, but they say the results are often deadly.
“So what happens is the deer are feeding on this food which is very different from the food they would normally be feeding on in the wild,” says Wildlife Biologist Scott Lindsay, with the Maine Department of Inland, Fisheries and Wildlife.
Lindsay says the deer can’t digest the food, which results in an acid imbalance or Acidosis. “Often they’ll just be feeding there with full bellies, they’ll be standing, and then they’ll just essentially lie down recumbent and die very quickly,” he says.
Another problem with feeding deer, Lindsay says it can draw them into danger. “It can lead to death through collisions with vehicles as the deer are trying to access these feeding sites,” Lindsay says.
He says if you want to help the deer, give them what they’re used to – trees. “The alder, the red maple, young oaks, these are all trees that are very abundant in the area,” he says.