SEPAQ advertising
The SEPAQ in its advertising claims that the Anticosti island has a concentration of more than 20 deer/km2 or 52 deer/m2. A total of 166,000 whitetail deer live on the Anticosti island according to the Ministère des ressources naturelles et de la faune (MRNF).
Moreover the SEPAQ (Société des établissements de plein air du Québec) said: ''The special diet of deer on Anticosti island gives their meat a more refined taste''.
So there would be a total of 166 000 deer on Anticosti island. As this is a natural environment with little or no human intervention, it is agreed to assume that the male/female ratio is probably close to 1 male /1 female. The reproduction rate of the female on the island is 1.3 fawn/female.
Consequently there would be approximately 80 000 females giving birth on Anticosti, to more than 100 000 fawn every spring.
An impossible goal
The MRNF has announced in his last Management Plan 2010-17 he wanted to reduce the deer population on the island to 120 000 deer. The department has not really an easy task since the hunt harvest has been just over 9 000 deer each year for the past 3 years, according to the MRNF Statistics for 2009-2010-2011.
The only real ally of the MRNF on Anticosti island is the severity of winter. If the next few winters are very difficult as is often the case on the island, it is likely that more than 100 000 deer (mostly fawn) will die each year of cold and hunger. Winter in Anticosti leaves more than 20 feet ( 6 meters) of snow on the ground, covering most of the deer's food.
According to biologists
The show ''La semaine verte'' aired on February 29,2004 a report on Anticosti island.
http://www.radio-canada.ca/actualite/semaineverte/ColorSection/fauneFlore/040229/cerf.shtml
The MRNF is very aware of the problem, as the biologist François Potvin of the ''Société de la faune et des parcs du Québec'', wrote in the same article, that the habitat on Anticosti island could not support more than 60 000 deer.
These biologists will also have a very strong opposition from all the outfitters of the island, who have exclusive rights over a large part of the territory, if they want to reduce the herd at that level.
As a hunter, I consider that the whitetail deer is the most unpredictable animal. The deer has always responded well over the years to tight restrictions on its habitat, in many parts of Canada and the United States. The deer has a surprising capacity to adapt to any changes to its habitat, besides being endowed with a phenomenal ability to reproduce.
There is an innovative solution as effective as the construction of enclosures. I will discuss in a future article of a revolutionary answer to manage the hordes of deer on Anticosti island.
Nanook
Version en français: http://nanookqc.blogspot.com/2012/01/trop-de-cerfs-de-virginie-anticosti.html
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