Advanced White Tailed Deer Management

In 2003, a cadre of researchers set out to determine what combination of supplemental or natural nutrition and white-tailed deer population density would produce the largest antlers on bucks without harming vegetation. They would come to call this combination “the sweet spot.” Over the course of their 15-year experiment, conducted through the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University–Kingsville, Timothy E. Fulbright, Charles A. DeYoung, David G. Hewitt, Don A. Draeger, and 25 graduate students tracked the effects of deer density and enhanced versus natural nutrition on vegetation conditions. Through wet years and dry, in a semiarid environment with frequent droughts, they observed deer nutrition and food habits and analyzed population dynamics. Containing the results of this landmark, longitudinal study, in keeping with the Kleberg Institute’s mission, this volume provides science-based information for enhancing the conservation and management of Texas wildlife. Advanced White-Tailed Deer Management: The Nutrition–Population Density Sweet Spot presents this critical research for the first time as a reference for hunters, landowners, wildlife managers, and all those who work closely with white-tailed deer populations. It explains the findings of the Comanche-Faith Project and the implications of these findings for white-tailed deer ecology and management throughout the range of the species with the goal of improving management.

For most of the last century, range management meant managing land for livestock. How well a landowner grew the grass that cattle ate was the best measure of success. In this century, landowners look to hunting and wildlife viewing for income; rangeland is now also wildlife habitat, and they are managing their land not just for cattle but also for wildlife, most notably deer and quail. Unlike other books on white-tailed deer in places where rainfall is relatively high and the environment stable, this book takes an ecological approach to deer management in the semiarid lands of Oklahoma, Texas, and northern Mexico. These are the least productive of white-tail habitats, where periodic drought punctuates long-term weather patterns. The book's focus on this landscape across political borders is one of its original and lasting contributions. Another is its contention that good management is based on ecological principles that guide the manager's thinking about: Habitat Requirements of White-Tailed Deer White-Tailed Deer Nutrition Carrying Capacity Habitat Manipulation Predators Hunting Timothy Edward Fulbright is a Regents Professor and the Meadows Professor in Semiarid Land Ecology at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University-Kingsville. J. Alfonso Ortega-S., is an associate professor at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

Improve your deer hunting land now for bigger bucks! White-tailed deer hunters who own or lease land are always trying to increase their odds of tagging a trophy buck. But until now, there has been little comprehensive information on how to set up a property to improve the local deer herd and your overall hunting success. The expert advice inside White-tailed Deer Management and Habitat Improvement will benefit properties of all sizes--from 10 to 1,000 acres or more. Plus, the majority of this work can be done on small properties with little more than an investment of time and sweat equity. Steve Bartylla has more than 20 years of experience setting up and managing hunting properties, as well as consulting for other landowners who want to manage their lands for healthy, mature bucks. His hands-on knowledge will provide detailed instruction on how to boost your hunting success by improving the land, the quality of mature deer and your overall hunting plan. YOU'LL LEARN HOW TO: • Add and enhance food sources • Create cover • Influence deer movement • Help doe populations • Manage for older, larger bucks • Hunt more often and decrease disturbances

The original, 2006 edition of Timothy Edward Fulbright and J. Alfonso Ortega-S.’s White-Tailed Deer Habitat: Ecology and Management on Rangelands was hailed as “a splendid reference for the classroom and those who make their living from wildlife and the land” and as “filling a niche that is not currently approached in the literature.” In this second, full-color edition, revised and expanded to include the entire western United States and northern Mexico, Fulbright and Ortega-S. provide a carefully reasoned synthesis of ecological and range management principles that incorporates rangeland vegetation management and the impact of crops, livestock, predation, and population density within the context of the arid and semiarid habitats of this broad region. As landowners look to hunting as a source of income and to the other benefits of managing for wildlife, the clear presentation of the up-to-date research gathered in this book will aid their efforts. Essential points covered in this new edition include: White-tailed deer habitat requirements Nutritional needs of White-tailed deer Carrying capacity Habitat management Hunting Focused across political borders and written with an understanding of environments where periodic drought punctuates long-term weather patterns, this revised and expanded edition of White-Tailed Deer Habitat: Ecology and Management on Rangelands will aid landowners, researchers, and naturalists in their efforts to integrate land management and use with sound ecological practices.

Winner of the Wildlife Society Outstanding Edited Book Award for 2013! Winner of the Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society Outstanding Book Award for 2011! Winner of a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award for 2011! Biology and Management of White-tailed Deer organizes and presents information on the most studied large mammal species in the world. The book covers the evolutionary history of the species, its anatomy, physiology, and nutrition, population dynamics, and ecology across its vast range (from central Canada through northern South America). The book then discusses the history of management of white-tailed deer, beginning with early Native Americans and progressing through management by Europeans and examining population lows in the early 1900s, restocking efforts through the mid 1900s, and recent, overabundant populations that are becoming difficult to manage in many areas. Features: Co-published with the Quality Deer Management Association Compiles valuable information for white-tailed deer enthusiasts, managers, and biologists Written by an authoritative author team from diverse backgrounds Integrates white-tailed deer biology and management into a single volume Provides a thorough treatment of white-tailed deer antler biology Includes downloadable resources with color images The backbone of many state wildlife management agencies' policies and a featured hunting species through much of their range, white-tailed deer are an important species ecologically, socially, and scientifically in most areas of North America. Highly adaptable and now living in close proximity to humans in many areas, white-tailed deer are both the face of nature and the source of conflict with motorists, home-owners, and agricultural producers. Capturing the diverse aspects of white-tailed deer research, Biology and Management of White-tailed Deer is a reflection of the resources invested in the study of the species’ effects on ecosystems, predator-prey dynamics, population regulation, foraging behavior, and browser physiology.

Top deer biologists and deer hunting authors discuss how and when hunters should harvest bucks and antlerless deer, and how to ensure a better chance of getting that trophy buck.

Artificial Feeders, Feeding in Open Area, Deer Eating Snow, Teeth.