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Management Needs | |
| Description Distribution Life History and Reproduction Threats and Mortality Diseases and Parasites Management Needs
Page created by Jeromy Norris |
Livestock management practices can be beneficial or detrimental to deer nutrition. Continuous grazing causes a gradual decline in range condition, reducing livestock nutrition and habitat quality for deer. The absence of livestock over long periods of time can be as detrimental to deer habitat as overgrazing. Managing livestock grazing activity during the summer growing periods is an important tool for improving mule deer habitat (Cantu and Richardson, 1997). Water is a critical component of mule deer habitat in West Texas. Because of slightly high rainfall amounts and better distribution of permanent, natural and man-made water sources in the Panhandle, water is more of a concern in the Trans-Pecos (Cantu and Richardson, 1997). As far as brush management is concerned, woody plants are important to mule deer in providing security cover, shelter from weather extremes and escape from predators and hunters. The mule deer also consume the woody plants as a major food source (Davis and Schmidly, 1994). Population management is also a very important factor in maintaining good quality of mule deer. A quality deer herd leads to high reproductive rates, increased body weights, larger antlers by age class, and an overall improvement in the deer herd’s age structure (Cantu and Richardson, 1997). |