From October 1972, through September 1974, rumen analyses were used to determine food habits of white-tailed deer on the H.B. Zachry Randado Ranch in south Texas. Sixty-nine plant taxa were identified in the diet. Year-round preferences for various forage classes were 21.1% cactus, 32.7% browse, 26.6% forbs, 8.3% grasses, and 11.3% unknown. Cactus was heavily selected from June through September, and was consumed less but still heavily during October through January. Highest forb consumption occurred during March, April, and May. Browse usually was an important part of the diet, and grass consumption on untreated range was constantly low. A direct relationship was found between frequency with which a plant species was eaten and variability in the amount of that species consumed. Perennial plant species were more important as forage than annual species. Application of 2, 4-D herbicide caused grass consumption to increase 30 times over nonsprayed areas. 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.