Deer Management in Texas

Deer Management in Texas

  • Submitted By: WTR11
  • Date Submitted: 11/25/2008 9:17 AM
  • Category: Miscellaneous
  • Words: 987
  • Page: 4
  • Views: 393

Over the last ten years Deer Management has grown from just harvesting the deer that did not show the right genetic make up to, putting out supplements and sophisticated feeding programs for the deer. Also now the owners of ranches have started to see that managing their deer herds is paying huge dividends with hunters coming to their ranches in search of a huge trophy buck. With the smarter hunting tactics and intense feeding programs ranch owners have implemented over the years the White-tailed deer have been thriving on ranches all over the state of Texas.
Can feeding White-tailed deer really increase their body mass and horn size? Many experts believe feeding how protein supplement feeds can increase deer body mass and horn size (McCombie, 63). Researchers at the University of Calgary said, “That when a buck’s protein and other nutritional needs are met or exceeded, more of its energy will go into antler production (ibid).” Thirty-Four year ago the Texas Parks and Wildlife conducted a study on 17 buck fawns at the Kerr Wildlife Management Area (ibid). Wildlife officials separated the bucks into groups, “over the next four years one group was fed a diet containing approximately 16 percent protein, and another group was fed only low-protein rations (ibid).” The bucks on the protein diet not only showed larger antler growth than the deer on the low-protein diet they also gained more body mass (ibid). However the bucks that were on the low-protein diet then fed the protein supplement their body mass and antlers increased in size and sometimes even grew larger antlers than the bucks on the protein supplement year round (ibid). So this means that maybe the best way to feed protein is to rotate feeding protein instead of feeding it year round. Also with feeding increased amounts of protein comes the risk of health problems involved with the deer herd.
Some of the feeding dangers of whitetail deer as told by Zoologist Dr. Valerius Geist are that supplemental...

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