When the mast crop fails..................
10-09-2003, 08:21 PM
#1
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: oakwood virginia USA
Posts: 91
When the mast crop fails..................
We have had 2 consecutive mast crops fail here in Southwest Virginia. When there are no nearby agricltural ares for deer to go to, what do they eat? In this area farms are miles and miles away and these national forest lands have quite a few deer. They aren' t going to travel 15 miles to a farm to eat i would think. What else would a deer eat in mountainous timbered country?
10-10-2003, 02:49 AM
#2
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Plum Boro, PA
Posts: 1,423
RE: When the mast crop fails..................
They will browse on anything available basically. Twigs and such. There are areas here in Pennsylvania where you can actually see a visible browse line. I' ve seen this in West Virginia too. Too many deer and not enough to eat is what it comes down to. There are small areas that the PA Game Commision has fenced off to keep the deer out to show the drastic difference in forest regrowth where deer are not permitted to eat. I saw pictures of this in a magazine last year. It was pretty amazing.
10-10-2003, 03:54 AM
#3
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Fredericksburg Virginia USA
Posts: 13,672
RE: When the mast crop fails..................
Jimimac said it all, I check the stomach contents of every deer I kill and even with a good mast crop real late in the season I have seen their stomachs packed with browse.
10-10-2003, 07:29 AM
#4
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Hico, WV USA
Posts: 393
RE: When the mast crop fails..................
Deer will eat just about anything.....the trick is finding their " preferred" food. Deer have been living through mast failures for thousands of years....they are the masters of adaptation.
Apples, twigs, leaves, bark.....if they can reach it, chances are they can eat it.
Some of the more interesting things I have seen deer eat.....last year I watched two does eat a strip after strip of greenbriers....I guess the thorns didn' t bother them. Just a few weeks ago, I watched a small buck take care of my poison ivy problem.....the pickets on the one side of my property have been cleaned off better than any herbicide could do. Over the summer I saw two deer standing in the middle of an old pond....you could see them sticking their heads under water then coming up with a huge mouthful of algae. Look like something you would expect a moose to do!
At any rate...suggestion would be to figure out where they bed and fan out from there....bound to be a food source somewhere nearby or the deer wouldn' t be there.
Good luck!
Apples, twigs, leaves, bark.....if they can reach it, chances are they can eat it.
Some of the more interesting things I have seen deer eat.....last year I watched two does eat a strip after strip of greenbriers....I guess the thorns didn' t bother them. Just a few weeks ago, I watched a small buck take care of my poison ivy problem.....the pickets on the one side of my property have been cleaned off better than any herbicide could do. Over the summer I saw two deer standing in the middle of an old pond....you could see them sticking their heads under water then coming up with a huge mouthful of algae. Look like something you would expect a moose to do!
At any rate...suggestion would be to figure out where they bed and fan out from there....bound to be a food source somewhere nearby or the deer wouldn' t be there.
Good luck!
