Except that they're not native wildlife, they're imported from Europe. So they'd be out of their accustomed climate, competing with the pre-existing (and at times overwhelming) population of White Tail Deer that ARE bred and used to being here. Also, they've never had to forage for themselves. It snows, rancher brings hay. That's how winter works, right? And it's coming up fast on winter... There have been a couple studies (I forget my citation right now, sorry) of released populations of other species, and pretty consistently half die within the first month. Half of the remaining half die within the two months after that, so you get only 1/4 of the original population surviving at all; whether they set up a feral breeding population depends on the particular circumstances, but I'm guessing that in a place with as much population pressure as there is around here (by which I mean Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and Washington) with the booming populations of White Tailed Deer, the Fallow Deer would have a bugger of a time squeezing in. Hard to chop out a space in an already over-full to the point of starvation niche.
So at least staying on the farm means they'll be well fed until a quick and (if done right) painless death (or kept around to breed) instead of starving in a snow bank in the woods.
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Date: 2010-10-16 03:30 pm (UTC)There have been a couple studies (I forget my citation right now, sorry) of released populations of other species, and pretty consistently half die within the first month. Half of the remaining half die within the two months after that, so you get only 1/4 of the original population surviving at all; whether they set up a feral breeding population depends on the particular circumstances, but I'm guessing that in a place with as much population pressure as there is around here (by which I mean Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and Washington) with the booming populations of White Tailed Deer, the Fallow Deer would have a bugger of a time squeezing in. Hard to chop out a space in an already over-full to the point of starvation niche.
So at least staying on the farm means they'll be well fed until a quick and (if done right) painless death (or kept around to breed) instead of starving in a snow bank in the woods.