Winter Nutrition and Population Ecology of White-Tailed Deer in the Central Superior National Forest

摘要

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and wolves (Canis lupus) evolved together, and in parts of southern Canada and the northern United States, the two animals still live together. To fully understand the relationship between deer and wolves, it is important to study as many aspects as possible of the life history or ecology of both. Thus, as part of a long-term investigation of wolf-deer interactions in the central Superior National Forest (SNF) of northeastern Minnesota, we have examined deer social ecology, movements, winter nutritional physiology, reproduction, survival, mortality, and population changes. After some 15 years of such study, we have reached a significant level of understanding of several important features of winter nutrition of deer that relate to the animal's ecology and population dynamics.