Kirby and her colleagues noted that in the other 11 bear-baiting states, the average start for placing bait is 23 days before the season. Wisconsin, however, opens baiting days before the season and continues it throughout the day hunt. Kirby documented over one bear-bait station every 1. Further, a Wisconsin DNR study in estimated hunters placed 3.
After documenting the larger bear population a decade ago, the Wisconsin DNR increased its hunting quota. Wisconsin has led the nation in bear hunting the past 10 years, with an average harvest of 4, bears annually since , or 50 percent higher than the previous year average of 2, Ripple Effects Higher bear numbers can also increase predation on newborn whitetail fawns in spring.
A Wisconsin DNR study in found black bears were the chief predator of fawns in its northwestern study area. Research elsewhere likewise suggests heavily baited areas boost raccoon and feral-hog numbers, which increases turkey-nest predation in spring and habitat destruction year-round.
It causes too many problems. Gassett cites turf wars between hunters, reduced daylight deer movements, increased competition between deer at bait sites and the likelihood of spreading diseases to deer and other wildlife. He also implicated mold toxins in corn and grains for wildlife health problems.
But it can kill turkeys and songbirds. Gassett said research on food plots documents benefits beyond deer, including birds, mice, rabbits, insects and pollinators. For instance, a University of Georgia study led by Wilson E. Gassett and most biologists also worry that bait sites could help spread CWD. The concentrated nature of licks and bait sites makes it likely that deer share food particles, and shed high levels of prions when urinating, defecating and salivating.
Saliva likely has the highest potential to transmit CWD. The study notes saliva from infected whitetails contains one to five infectious doses of prions. However, in other cases feeding deer can be beneficial — at least for the short term. Chronic wasting disease CWD , hemorrhagic disease HD , or any other transmittable disease will increase in occurrence with increased deer densities.
By baiting, hunters are artificially increasing the deer density in an area. Even though this is not permanent, the contact as brief as it might be could be enough to spread disease.
In most cases, it is purely a supplement to their diet that helps sustain them through nutritionally stressful periods, or to increase hunting opportunity. This can lead to severe nutrient deficiencies which can lead to death.
In the North, extreme winter conditions can make food impossible to find, and state agencies have even gone to the lengths of implementing winter feeding programs.
High winter mortalities can decimate deer herds if they occur over multiple consecutive years. Some people argue that there are no differences between the establishment and management of food plots or wildlife openings and the practices of baiting or feeding.
This argument is not defensible, because food plots and wildlife openings are planted and managed primarily to diversify wildlife habitat--that is, to provide better cover for birds and mammals during nesting, brood rearing, or late winter or summer forage. Managed food plots or wildlife openings complement habitat diversity, which might otherwise be limited in such places as even-aged pine plantations, mature forests, or naturally regenerated timber stands.
These food plots or openings usually half an acre or larger are much less likely to concentrate high- density deer populations or cause increased intra-species interaction or conflict than would much smaller baiting or feeding sites. Additionally, food plots and wildlife openings are always available for use by wildlife, not just when humans make feed or bait available at baiting and feeder sites. If examined rationally, the following reasons why baiting and supplemental feeding of white-tailed deer are not in the best interest of wildlife resources, hunters, or the hunting tradition in the southeast should improve public understanding why professionals and the majority of hunters strongly oppose these practices.
Note References for the many scientific studies that document the negative impacts of baiting and supplemental feeding will not be cited herein, however, a soon-to-be-published Technical Committee Report from The Wildlife Society will provide a significant amount of literature cited on these issues.
These practices ultimately lead to detrimental changes in wildlife behavior, including habituation to humans, loss of wildness, increased social stress, and intra-species competition.
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