Using Condition Indicators to Evaluate Habitat Quality for White-tailed Deer
We examined the usefulness of condition profiles, incorporating postmortem morphologic, physiologic, and dietary indices from fall-harvested deer and seasonal fecal indices of diet quality, for evaluating differences in habitat quality between adjacent populations of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). This study was conducted on East Range (4.5% of 12,000 ha cultivated) and West Range (0.8% of 18,000 ha cultivated), Fort Sill Military Reservation, southwestern Oklahoma, from November 1987 to August 1989. Analysis of postmortem blood and digesta samples revealed that deer collected...
