Mule deer winter feed?

[Six by five]

Recently I was checking out "Wild Migrations", an awesome book about many of the migrations in Wyoming. I ran across something that I found really interesting, according to the statistic listed in the book (included in the pic below) 50% of mule deer feed in the winter is browse.

I'm from PA and in the winter time the whitetail definitely find the thickets and eat the browse. I didn't realize that mule deer may be doing the same thing.

I sent on this information to one of the conservation groups and they found it interesting as well. I thought some others on Hunt Talk might find this interesting.

If mule deer need browse in the winter, then maybe these areas where the NF meets the BLM should be considered top areas for logging? Does anyone have any thoughts on logging activity today compared to some of the mule deer heydays of the 70's and 80's?



\

 

[El Jason]

It depends. If the area has heavy PJ (pinion/juniper) encroachment, then yes it can be a significant factor. Other areas, not so much. A bigger concern in some of these areas is an unnatural fire cycle where the range land is converted to cheatgrass and other invasives that are more flammable and don't allow for regeneration of sagebrush, bitterbrush, rabbitbrush, mountain mahogany, and so on.

You're often looking at lowland landscapes that are rather arid, and would likely have poor timber quality, at least in my anecdotal observations.

Some good reading here:

Publications | WAFWA - Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

Welcome to the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, representing agencies since 1922.

www.wafwa.org

In addition, there are other factors that may come into play here. Winter range security for mule deer is huge, and O&G development has reduced this.

Logging in the 70s/80s likely had a much greater impact on the mid range successional forest habitat than it did the lowland winter range. @BuzzH could probably add a lot more detail to this than I can. Lastly, rangeland composition has changed in many areas over the years. Better range management has improved the grassland quality, which in turn favors elk. Do elk outcompete mule deer, or do more favorable conditions simply lead to more elk and fewer deer? It's a complicated puzzle, and even more confounded when you look at the vast array of landscapes mule deer exist in.