Deer HLS or Shedding (Molting)? - Education Lesson

General discussions on hiking in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest
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ProjectWilderness
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Location: Pacific Northwest
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Deer HLS or Shedding (Molting)? - Education Lesson

Post by ProjectWilderness » May 12th, 2011, 8:20 am

So I've found that many people see deer with a lack of hair in the spring and think they're shedding. Which of course is logical thinking. This however is not the case. So we did a blog to help educate people on a serious issue affecting black-tail deer in Oregon & Washington.

you can view the whole blog at projectwilderness.org




Male Pattern Baldness Affecting Deer?


It’s a problem many men have to deal with – male pattern baldness. Are black-tail deer going bald just like men in America?

It sure seems that way…

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Hehe, okay, so maybe deer aren’t going bald from male pattern baldness. They are however going bald in coastal Oregon & Washington. Unfortunately, many see this in late winter/early spring and believe deer are simply shedding a winter coat. This is not the case at all. Deer do have a winter and summer coat; they transfer from one coat to the other by molting – a process similar to shedding. Let’s examine a couple of pictures of deer molting.

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Three important elements that will help you identify a deer molting.

#1 – They may look fuzzy like a kitten or somewhat scruffy.

#2 -The summer coat is a reddish orange color and the winter coat is a dirty gray, so they will look somewhat two tone while molting.

#3 – They are still fully covered by hair, no skin is exposed.

Now that we have identified what deer molting looks like, you may be asking; so what’s causing the baldness in deer? Black-tail deer populations are suffering from symptoms of a tiny invasive species. Eurasian louse, a form of lice causes the host, black-tail deer, to itch extremely bad. The itching is so bad that they scratch and bite their hair off exposing the bare skin. This issue is referred to as HLS (Hair Loss Syndrome).

According to a study published in Washington State in 2011; the most susceptible deer affected by HLS, fawns, spend a significantly less time foraging because they are scratching. Surprisingly, also according to the same study, this ultimately leads to a significant increase in predation of fawns with HLS by coyotes, cougars, black bears and other predators.


For the remaining blog and HLS explination go to projectwilderness.org

raven
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Re: Deer HLS or Shedding (Molting)? - Education Lesson

Post by raven » May 12th, 2011, 3:45 pm

I've observed a similar mange problem with fox squirrels in southwest Portland. Must make for a hard winter for those guys.

ProjectWilderness
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Joined: July 22nd, 2009, 9:31 am
Location: Pacific Northwest
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Re: Deer HLS or Shedding (Molting)? - Education Lesson

Post by ProjectWilderness » May 12th, 2011, 6:44 pm

Oh yeah...can you imagine being out in the snow or freezing rain with nothing but shorts and a t-shirt? :o You're gonna be in trouble quick!

The unfortunate part is while simple flee medication may work, that would take a large volume of cash to treat the thousands infected. Plus how do you prevent future outbreaks on the treated deer? ODFW has no solution at the moment.

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