How drought affects wildlife

In the aftermath of the drought, hunters in Lavaca and DeWitt County are encouraged to hunt bright and early.

“For Lavaca County, this has been the second hottest summer on the record. Most of the county has been in either an extreme or sever drought,” Lavaca County Wildlife Bioligist Brent Pierce said. “What we’re expecting this hunting season is increased deer movement due to lack of habitat and vegetation. Honestly, however, we’ve seen a pretty good amount of mass production and we could be all set with this October rain we’re getting.

“It seems like that habitat has took the majority of the hit. The deer have mostly done pretty well, except for these latter fawns. However, the fawns that have dropped in the May and June time frame have done really well.”

With these changes, deer are more likely to be coming to feeders.

“You’ll see more deer coming to feeders than years past,” Pierce said. “Hunters should get out early and take advantage of that before the rain sets in and the habitat starts to improve. With the lack of rain that we’ve had and high temperatures, there’s less available water in these landscapes. So, watering holes would be a good idea if you have land that didn’t get as much water.”

Lavaca County has been hit harder than several surrounding counties. The coastal counties in the east of Highway 77 were affected the most by the drought. In the west, it wasn’t as severe.

For DeWitt County, it has been a dryer year than average, but overall conditions for this year has been better than 2022.

“Specifically in DeWitt County, overall this year has not been as bad as last year. However, right now things have been pretty dry for a few months.” DeWitt County biologist Lee Williamson said. “Especially if you live in the western part of the county, away from the river and bigger creeks, then artificial water sources are very important for wildlife right now – most notably deer and turkey. In the eastern part of the county, there’s a little more standing water and it’s not as vital.”

Intense drought over the course of the year can have very strong and pronounced negative effects on wildlife population, according to Williamson.

“In 2022, that year was way dryer, we had gotten about 13 inches (of rain) in the County. This year, we got about 27.4 inches of rain. That’s a pretty big difference there,” Williamson said. “In 2022, we were seeing a big impact on the wildlife population. Because it was so dry for the entire year, the deer were really being energetically stressed. There wasn’t enough quality in weather for good antler growth or for good fawn bearing. If they weren’t dropping dead, they were way more vulnerable to coyotes because they didn’t have the energy to defend themselves.”

“Predation was way more of an issue last year. We were also seeing a lower fawn crop overall. The reason is because mothers just didn’t have the energy to support the fawns they were having. They either failed to successfully have a fawn or they would have a fawn and just leave it because they couldn’t possibly provide enough milk for it.”

Luckily, about 15 inches of rain fell this year in the springtime.

“The spring is the most vital time of year for wildlife to be getting precipitation. During that time of year, a lot of important wildlife species are starting to head into their breeding season,” Williamson said. “White tail deer are getting ready to start dropping their fawns, male deer are putting on their antler growth, turkeys and qual are getting ready to start nesting. So, getting a lot of rain this year during that time was really good for the population around here.”

Experts say hunting in the morning is the best way to go because it is much cooler and deer are likely to be tamer in their mannerisms.

Happy hunting!