white-tailed deer

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal neurological disease that affects cervid species including white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus).  As of 2021, it occurs in seven southeastern states, and more discoveries in the region are likely to occur. Hunter education regarding CWD is critical to obtain support for disease management actions that rely on hunter participation but potentially are in opposition to typical hunter objectives. In August 2018, we provided educational programming on CWD to 84 members of a deer hunting club in west Tennessee. After CWD was discovered...

Spatial variation in landscape composition can influence phenotypic expression in wildlife species and can improve management efforts to express certain phenotypic traits. We evaluated the influence of age, landscape composition, and physiographic province on white-tailed deer (Odo- coileus virginianus) antler characteristics using data from 16,622 male deer (age range: 1.5–3.5+ years old) harvested between 1997–2016 across five physiographic provinces in Georgia. Age and physiographic province influenced antler size index (ASI; P < 0.001). ASI of yearling males was greatest (x- = 53.37...

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are one of the most abundant and well-studied ungulates in North America. Few studies, however, have examined how population demography affects the fawning season, which may be influenced by age structure and adult sex ratio of the population. From 2010 to 2013, we used vaginal implant transmitters (VITs) to record the birth date of fawns born within a 174-ha captive facility to elucidate how population demography affects fawning season. We documented an earlier shift in fawning season as male age structure increased from a mean of 2.74 years old...

Many of the methods used to estimate white-tailed deer population parameters from camera images are reliant upon the assumption that rates of detectability are similar between both sexes and all age groups of deer. e assumption of equal detectability may not be valid when bait is used to attract deer to survey sites due to physical and behavioral differences between deer groups. We placed trail cameras set at 1-minute time-lapse intervals at randomly selected sites baited with corn inside the Auburn University Deer Research Facility, a 175-ha enclosure containing a captive population of...

Providing a suffcient quantity of nutritional forage should be an integral component of any white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) management plan that aims to maximize deer condition and quality. Deer managers generally attempt to meet the nutritional needs of their herd through some combination of habitat management, food plot production, and/or supplemental feed provisioning. However, nutritional demands of deer and forage quality and abundance fluctuate throughout the year, creating nutritional stress periods and a dilemma for managers regarding how to maximize the nutritional...

More than 1 million wildlife-vehicle collisions occur annually in the United States. The majority of these accidents involve white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and result in >US $4.6 billion in damage and >200 human fatalities. Prior research has used collision locations to assess sitespecific as well as landscape features that contribute to risk of deer-vehicle collisions. As an alternative approach, we calculated road-crossing locations from 25 GPS-instrumented white-tailed deer near Madison, Georgia (n = 154,131 hourly locations). We identified crossing locations by...

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) activity patterns are predominately crepuscular. However, the general populace believes that deer activity is also influenced by lunar factors. This belief is demonstrated by the countless "solunar charts" claiming to provide peak periods of deer activity. While research has identified solar and lunar influences on behavioral patterns in some species, descriptions of solunar factors on white-tailed deer are rare. Our goal was to evaluate whether solunar charts can predict periods of increased activity in white-tailed deer. We used 38 adult male,...

Understanding movement patterns of adult male white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is important to explaining population dynamics, predation interactions, gene flow, and disease spread. Relatively few studies have investigated movement ecology of mature male deer, although recent trends in hunter-harvest selectivity have led to an increased representation of this cohort in many herds. Multiple co-occurring variables influence spatiotemporal variation in deer movements, but individuals should move at an optimum rate to maximize individual health and fitness while minimizing high-risk...

Antler-based selective-harvest criteria (SHC) for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) management is common on public lands throughout the Southeast despite little published literature examining their effects on harvest composition, antlered harvest per unit effort (HPE), and antler scores. Particularly, SHCs may select against larger-antlered males within each age cohort, resulting in smaller antler size of the residual population. We examined the effects of SHC on harvest composition, number of antlered deer harvested per 100 days hunter effort, and antler-scores within age cohorts...

Despite decades of interest and research, many questions remain about seasonal movements and habitat use of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), particularly in the Southeast. The advent of GPS-based telemetry has made detailed studies of year-round movements feasible. We assessed monthly habitat use for adult male (n = 15) and female (n = 15) deer at Barksdale Air Force Base in northwestern Louisiana using GPS radio collars collecting locations at hourly intervals over approximately one year. Males had larger monthly home ranges (97-380 ha) than females (44-181 ha), particularly in...