Estimates of carrying capacity for herbivores are useful for determining the relative value of different ranges. We compared 6 estimates of nutritional carrying capacity for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus L.): digestible energy consumed by tame deer, and 5 methods using forage supplies of dry matter, digestible energy, digestible nitrogen, dry matter*digestible energy, and dry matter*digestible nitrogen in two 1-ha enclosures of different shrub plant communities in southern Texas. For the north enclosure, carrying capacity estimates (90% CI) were 3.65 (CI = 3.61-3.69), 4.5 (CI = 3.7-5.3), 9.4 (Cl = 73-11.5), 15.2 (CI = 11.6-18.8), 3.5 (CI = 2.7-4.3), and 3.5 (CI = 2.7-4.3) deer ha-1 58 days-1 for the digestible energy tame deer, dry matter, digestible energy, digestible nitrogen, dry matter*digestible energy, and dry matter*digestible nitrogen techniques, respectively. Corresponding estimates for the south enclosure were 2.6 (CI = 2.5-2.7), 3.5 (CI = 3.2-3.9), 6.8 (CI = 6.0-7.6), 10.1 (CI = 8.8-11.3), 2.1 (CI = 1.8-2.6), and 2.8 (CI = 2.4-3.1). Some methods for estimating carrying capacity provided different absolute estimates, but all produced similar relative estimates between enclosures. Similar relative results between enclosures suggests any of the methods can be used to determine the relative nutritional quality of plant communities. However, the dry matter-based technique was less expensive than the other techniques; therefore, there is no need to use more costly techniques for determining the relative stocking rates for white-tailed deer, unless forage quality differs greatly among plant communities. The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information. Migrated from OJS platform August 2020
Scholarly peer-reviewed articles published by the Society for Range Management. Access articles on a rolling-window basis from vol. 1, 1948 up to 5 years from the current year. Formerly Journal of Range Management (JRM). More recent content is available by subscription from SRM.