Guides and loggers of the island of Anticosti noticed a high number of deer carcasses at the end of winter 2025, which could be explained by last summer drought.
“I saw deer dead every day on the trails that I open and on the seaside, especially faes and young people of a year and a half, ” Journal The lumberjack Stéphane Benoit, who has released the chain saw for a few weeks in order to allow the mobility of fall hunters.
Joined to the east of the island, Mr. Benoit evaluates at around 50 the number of dead animals which he saw, when he saw only one or two in total in the last spring.
A carcass of Virginia deer who did not spend the winter in Anticosti. Photo Gaétan Laprise
Gaétan Laprise
Same story on the part of his boss, Éric Filion, director of operations in Safari Anticosti, who accompanies 300 to 400 hunters each year in the island’s forests. “I had never seen that. Many young deer who did not survive winter, I saw a dozen for a single hike a few days ago. ”
Drought
The observation of an exceptional number of deer carcasses has not escaped Gaétan Laprise, a technician in the development of the retirement fauna of Port-Menier who has been carrying a constant watch on the livestock for more than 45 years.
“It has been a long time since we saw so many dead deer after melting snow, but winter is not in question. He was rather mild. On the other hand, the summer of 2024 ended with a long drought and the deer lacked nutritious foods to spend the winter, ”comments the author of a work on the deer of Virginia to appear in 2026.
He stresses that the fluctuations of the populations are normal but that mortality has been more important than usual. “I think it was very important – up to 25% of the livestock or 50,000 animals – but that it will not affect hunting in the fall. There will probably be fewer young people spikes and young females. “
The deer of Virginie, whom everyone calls deer, is the emblematic species of the island of Anticosti. Introduced at the end of the 19th century, it is today so abundant that it has profoundly modified the vegetation, transforming the white birch firmer into white pessière. Photo: Mathieu-Robert Sauvé
Archives photo, Mathieu-Robert Sauvé
Difficult count
Even if Anticosti is the paradise of the deer of Virginia, their exact number is impossible to assess due to the area of the territory, approximately 17 times that of the island of Montreal.
However, we know, due to the annual harvests, that the livestock is doing well. In 2024, 9,179 catches were reported, one of the 10 historical summits.
Gaétan Laprise
According to Mr. Laprise, some 25 deer per square kilometer last year ago, for a total of around 200,000 heads. It is much more than the 166,000 in 2005 or the 120,000 in 1995.
The Virginie deer has adapted very well to the island of Anticosti.
Mathieu-Robert Sauvé photo
Dry summer, fatal winter
- The months of July, August and September see vegetable production culminated, but the 2024 season was so dry that the plants lacked water. Jaunies and arids, they were less nourishing than usual.
- This is the period when the hinds have no reserve of fat, but they must accumulate it to survive in winter.
- Even healthy males would have started winter thinner than usual than usual.
- Work has estimated that during harsh winters combined with high densities of deer, mortalities can take 40% of young people and 20% of adults.
