Last Saturday on Door County Outdoors, Jeff Pritzl- DNR Wildlife Supervisor for Northeast Wisconsin joined us for a conversation on how the long winter has impacted Wisconsin’s deer herd…[audio:http://wdor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/jeff1.mp3|titles=Jeff Pritzl- impact on deer herd] The Winter Severity Index rates days at zero degrees or below and the number of days with at least 18 inches of snow. Pritzl says that the Northern part of the state from Highway 8 North and from Rhinelander West hit the ‘severe’ category recently and will likely hit ‘very severe’ before winter ends– while we are in the ‘moderate’ category in Door and Kewaunee Counties. We’re told that deer are conditioned to go approximately 60 days without food, so is feeding them a good idea…[audio:http://wdor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/jeff2.mp3|titles=Jeff Pritzl- Is feeding deer a good idea?]Feeding deer could also cause behavior changes to animals that could also lead to nuisance problems because they get accustomed to artificial food sources. We also discussed what Pritzl described as an ‘interesting phenomenon’ along Lake Michigan regarding species of sea ducks, ice ducks or golden eyes….[audio:http://wdor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/jeff3.mp3|titles=Jeff Pritzl- problems for diver ducks]Pritzl says if you find one of these non-aggressive ducks to either try to return them to open water or contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. You can listen to our entire conversation with Jeff Pritzl, DNR Wildlife Supervisor for Northeast Wisconsin by clicking Door County Fishing Report. Chase Parsons, host of “The Next Bite” on NBC Sports Network and AIMFishing.com will join us at 8:30 Saturday morning for Door County Outdoors on WDOR.
