Every winter day in a Maine garden, dozens of deer feed on oats, apples and acorns in wooden feeders. Unbeknownst to them, four cameras are broadcasting their every move live to thousands of people. Internet users have given them nicknames and even have their favorites.
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There is Lefty, a regular, nicknamed so because of the large gash in the middle of his left ear. Big G, another very popular resident, has large antlers that hunters call “the Gs”. As for Shaggy, he owes his name to his tousled coat.
These videos have reached people in the United States and around the world. Some enthusiasts watch the hungry deer while drinking their morning coffee. Others relax in the company of animals in the evening.
“They become your family,” said Betty Sullivan, 72, who admires Lefty and dozens of other deer for hours each day on the live stream.
Betty Sullivan’s San Francisco apartment doesn’t have a scenic view, she said, so the videos became her “window to the natural world.”
A father and son have been feeding deer for decades to help them survive the harsh Maine winter. In recent years, thanks to their YouTube channel Brownville’s Food Pantry For Deer, deer have become real stars of the web.
Every morning, from mid-December to early April, Richard and Randy McMahon distribute about 450 kg of food into the eight feeders they have set up in their garden. Then, the McMahons – and their 157,000 subscribers – watch from different camera angles as the white-tailed deer feast.
The water troughs feed between 200 and 250 deer each winter, Richard and Randy said.
“When they leave here, they are healthy, fat and sassy,” Richard, 78, told the Washington Post.
Richard describes growing up in a family of hunters who ate the game they hunted several times a week; his mother made venison stew with potatoes, carrots and turnips. But in recent decades, Richard says, instead of hunting, he has devoted himself to protecting deer.
“They fed me for years,” he said, “and now I’m going to feed them.” »
Nearly 40 years ago, in the backyard of their Medford, Maine, home, Richard and his three children spread oats on the ground for deer. While a dozen deer feasted, the family watched from the French doors of their living room.
After building a house in Brownville, Maine, in 2007, Randy set up deer food in his five-acre backyard, and his father soon joined him.
Randy upgraded the feeding system around 2012, building a feeder about 8 feet long out of spruce wood. The 57 kg of food that he and Richard put there each morning were quickly consumed.
They built more feeders and arranged them in a “V” shape. The duo collected hundreds of kilograms of acorns from under trees and purchased apples and oats from local farms and stores.
But feeding deer the recommended amount of 1 to 2.5 kg of food per day can be costly. After a few years, they were unsure if they could continue, as their annual expenses were around $15,000.
Hoping to reach a wider audience and collect donations, Richard and Randy set up a camera near the water troughs around 2016 and livestreamed footage of the deer feeding on Facebook for a few hours. Around 2018, they started streaming on YouTube. Their new subscribers donated thousands of dollars, which helped cover the food distribution center’s expenses. Additionally, Richard and Randy have earned thousands of dollars in advertising revenue from YouTube.
Now, cameras film from a dirt road, a watering hole, a nearby pond and the exterior of Richard’s apartment. Restaurants, bars and hospitals in the area broadcast these images live on their televisions. Fans are delighted to see the deer that regularly come to walk there, like Vincent and Longhorn, two animals they named after them.
Ellen Phaneuf, a kindergarten teacher in San Diego, said she shows the videos in her classroom to teach students about animals and the weather.
“My students know how to tell you what the terms “kid,” “doe” and “fawn” mean,” Phaneuf said in an email to Washington Post. “They are starting to care about wildlife and how to preserve it. »
Richard and Randy, 42, began their live streams for this winter last week. There has already been something new: Lefty, who fans feared would not return for his 10e or 11e winter, came out of the woods and headed to the watering holes on the first day of feeding.
In Maine, it is permitted to feed deer between mid-December and late May, during which time their natural food sources, such as grass, mushrooms, fruits, acorns and nuts, are less abundant and may be covered by snow. However, the Maine Department of Fish and Wildlife (MDIFW) strongly recommends against feeding deer, due to the risk of disrupting their migrations, increasing the risk of spreading contagious diseases, and increasing the food dependence of deer on humans.
Richard and Randy said they understand that feeding deer can be harmful, but father and son explained that after seeing deer starve in the winter, they are now helping the deer survive.
White-tailed deer can live up to 20 years, according to MDIFW, but few reach that age. Although deer still have predators, such as coyotes and bobcats, their populations can drop sharply in winter due to malnutrition, MDIFW says.
This can be a problem in the northern part of the state, where there are between one and five deer per square mile. Southern Maine may be home to up to 15 times more, according to MDIFW. Brownville is located in north-central Maine.
Randy, who owns a warehousing business, said the food bank has helped save thousands of deer. Nathan Webb, director of MDIFW’s wildlife division, could not confirm this, but said feeding deer in winter can help them survive if the feeders minimize risks to their health and safety.
Richard and Randy usually feed the deer about 40 tons of oats, 15,000 pounds of apples and 1,500 pounds of acorns per year. This year, there’s a new problem: Maine oak trees may have produced fewer acorns and smaller acorns this fall because of the drought, Webb said.
If the acorn shortage increases demand for food, Richard and Randy said they would be ready. Additionally, increased demand could mean more deer that visitors will have the opportunity to encounter.
“We are expecting a banner season,” Randy said.
Monday, a new deer, injured in the front leg, came to water; Internet users who followed the live broadcast named it Champ. All afternoon, comments sent him wishes for a speedy recovery.
This article was published in the Washington Post.
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