Rangeland Ecology & Management

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NATIVE SUMMER MAST AVAILABILITY IN SOUTH TEXAS.
Author
Belser, Emily H.
Hewitt, David
Fulbright, Timothy E.
DeYoung, Charles A.
Echols, Kim
Draeger, Don A.
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2016
Body

Summer diets of herbivores in South Texas consist heavily of mesquite beans and prickly pear mast when available. However, the importance of these mast species is often overlooked. To quantify the disappearance rate of mesquite beans and prickly pear mast, we monitored 5 mesquite trees and 5 prickly pear plants within each of 6, 80-ha white-tailed deer enclosures during summer 2014. Only prickly pear mast was monitored in 2015 because mesquite bean production was zero that year. We marked individual beans on each mesquite tree. Marked beans remaining on each mesquite and every fruit on each prickly pear were counted weekly to determine disappearance rates. We also measured canopy cover and counted the mast of 20 mesquites and 10 prickly pear plants randomly chosen in each enclosure to determine mast production in 2014 and 2015. Mesquite mast disappeared sooner than prickly pear mast in 2014. Mast took longer to disappear in enclosures with high mast production than in enclosures with low production in both years. Biomass of prickly pear and mesquite mast in each enclosure varied from 8 - 1489 kg/ha in 2014 and from 0 - 890 kg/ha in 2015, showing that mast production in South Texas can be highly variable among years. Despite this variability among years, these two native plants can account for a vast food resource for wildlife. These findings have implications for brush management. Managers should consider maintaining adequate mesquite and prickly pear in areas where managing for wildlife is a priority.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Corpus Christi, TX