White-tailed Deer

Habitat Management Suggestions for Selected Wildlife Species
By R.J. Mackie, R.F. Batchelor, M.E. Majerus, J.P. Weigand, and V.P. Sundberg

Whitetail habitat on each side of the Continental Divide differs greatly in vegetative character. On the west side of the Rockies, whitetails are most generally found in closed-canopy forests where their numbers are dependent on the extent of openings supporting winter browse ranges. The low shrubs which grow following fire make favorable deer habitat. However, natural plant succession is toward a closed-canopy, coniferous forest with very few log-growing browse plants. The natural succession resulting from the many large forest fires of the early 1900's my be one of the primary factors for the decline in whitetail numbers west of the Divide.

East of the Divide, whitetails are usually associated with deciduous vegetation growing on bottomlands along drainageways, often close to agriculture. Bottomland habitat generally consists of riparian vegetation that included ash, box-elder, cottonwood, willow and associated shrubs, forbs and grasses. In southeastern Montana, an important habitat for whitetail deer is found in the Long Pines area, where relatively open stands of ponderosa pine occur over broken terrain.

Foods

White-tailed deer in Montana occupy varied habitats and thus eat a wide variety of forage foods - the leaves, needles, succulent stems, fruits and nuts - from shrubs, forbs, domestic crops and grasses. It is useful to classify the important deer foods into two categories, according to each food's ability to attract and sustain deer in good physical condition. Proper classification reflects seasonal palatability and nutritional content of plant parts eaten. Choice foods attract deer and maintain vigorous health and reproduction. Fair foods are somewhat deficient, but usually sufficient to maintain life through critical periods of the year.

Choice browse species utilized by white-tailed deer west of the Continental Divide include serviceberry, chokecherry, snowberry, mountain maple, kinikinnick and Oregon grape. When available, juniper and bitterbrush are also considered choice.

East of the Divide, whitetails prefer chokecherry, serviceberry, skunkbrush sumac, snowberry, cottonwood and dogwood. Other browse species occurring in their diet include hawthorn, rose, green rabbitbrush, greasewood, buffaloberry and several species of sagebrush. During spring and summer, a variety of forbs are eaten by whitetails on both sides of the Continental Divide.

The importance of supply or quantity of food has long been recognized in deer management, but only in recent years has the importance of nutritional quality of food plants been emphasized. Almost without exception, low deer populations can be traced directly to an insufficient quantity of poor quality of food.

Habitat Management Suggestions

Maintaining healthy stocks of white-tailed deer is primarily a matter of keeping deer numbers in balance with their supply of winter food. Healthy deer populations grow very rapidly if the annual surplus of animals is not harvested. Overpopulation invariably leads to pressure on food supplies, which results in malnutrition. Starving deer can do immense damage to their winter range, depleting browse species and sometimes preventing regeneration of valuable forest trees. Moderately heavy hunting helps prevent these natural catastrophes by holding deer numbers in check, while, at the same time, providing thousands of man hours of recreation and tons of valuable meat.

Man can do little to modify the severe winters which deal so harshly with the white-tailed deer, but he can help provide and maintain the food and shelter which are so essential to the deer's survival.

Bottomlands used for livestock production, especially winter protection, are important to whitetails and should be maintained for deer whenever possible. Logging, which often favors deer by opening the forest canopy, can be made even more beneficial to deer if sufficient coniferous cover is allowed to remain to provide shelter from deep snow. In areas where brushy or woodland cover is scarce, suitable deer habitat can be saved from fire or land clearing.

Return to regular view	Text-only	Updated: 08/29/2006