Fall 2014

y Ruben Cantu and Greg Simons
Wildlife Biologists
WILDLIFE CONSULTANTS, INC.
From the perspective of white-tailed deer, a ranch is a big, all-you-can-eat
buffet. Plant diversity is important because deer, like people, have food
preferences. They will continue to eat their favorites until those plants
disappear, then they will move on to second and third preferences, eating
until those plants are gone.
If there are too many deer visiting the buffet, the process will continue,
until only the least desirable plants remain and the habitat is damaged.
An empty buffet table provides inadequate nutrition, meaning bucks don’t
develop big antlers and does can’t successfully raise replacement fawns.
Poor nutrition can also increase susceptibility to parasites and disease.
The key to preventing habitat damage is figuring out how many deer a
piece of land can support without causing any harm to the land or the
plants on it. This common sense concept is called carrying capacity.
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Fall 2014
Unfortunately, it is a not a static number, but one that changes based on
rainfall, season, and a host of other variables. The number of white-tailed
deer a piece of property can support is also affected by the presence of
exotics and livestock.
Carrying capacity is not the same across the state or even across the
neighboring fence line. On a low-fenced property, deer will range in
and out depending on food availability and other factors, which creates
a management challenge itself, but gives the landowner some built-in
flexibility. On a high-fenced property, deer can’t range freely; therefore,
the property owner must be vigilant and consistently manage the herd to
prevent overpopulation and habitat damage.
Unlike cattle producers who can easily manipulate the number of animals
up or down based on the amount of grass available, deer managers have a