Prey tactics produce varying degree of results

As the highly adaptable whitetail deer has expanded its range into the true wilderness areas, an interesting predator-prey duel has developed in the bush country of Canada.

It seems one of the first escape responses for the deer — upon finding themselves pursued by timber wolves — is to hightail it to a major water body and jump in. Apparently the wolves either abandon their chase, or are not the swimmers that the deer (and caribou and moose) are and thus fail miserably in their attempt to get supper.

My brother Jason, who lives in Manitoba and guides in that province and in Alberta, has said that fishermen and other outdoors enthusiasts observe deer out in the big lakes. What many folks don’t realize is that most deer take to swimming with little or no hesitation whatsoever.

And they’re good at it. One deer tagged years ago on the Iowa side of the DeSoto Refuge near Missouri Valley, wound up being killed by a hunter near Cedar Bluffs. In all likelihood, that deer swam the Missouri, Elkhorn and Platte Rivers.

Waterfowl hunters frequently see deer cross the Platte with no more trepidation than you or I would in crossing the street.

Up in the Far North, with timber wolf populations actually so high as to require ranchers to use propane cannons and other noisemakers to repel them from their operations and/or their pets. One local recounted how the tracks in the snow clearly showed where a wolf entered a yard, walked up to and killed his leashed German shepherd with apparently little struggle. In many wilderness areas, wolves are thought to kill perhaps three-fourths of all moose calves.

Well, the whitetails and moose have learned that the wolves’ pursuit ends at the shoreline — in the summertime.

Unfortunately for the hoofed animals, they often use the same escape response when things turn cold, with diametrically different results.

My brother has found dozens of deer carcasses out on the ice of the ocean-like Lake Winnipeg of Manitoba and the wild and beautiful Athabasca River of Alberta. Apparently the deer continue to head for the water when pursued, but when those water bodies are covered with ice, the ploy backfires and the wolf packs make short work of the deer.

Within a day, the entire carcass is usually consumed and all that’s left is a skeleton and a bloodstained patch of snow out on the river or lake.

It just goes to reinforce the fact that the pendulum swings both ways.