During a 30-day grazing trial, six mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus hemionus) at pasture altered their food selection significantly as availability of forage changed. At the beginning of the trial when forbs and grasses were abundant, they comprised better than 50% of the diet; but by the end of the trial when these preferred forages were less abundant, grass and forb declined. Shrub use increased and forb and grass use decreased as snow depths increased. Results support the conjecture that big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata wyomingensis) in excess of 30% in the diet is detrimental to mule deer nutritional health. This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. 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.