White-tailed Deer: Their Foods and Management in the Cross Timbers

Preface
This publication is the end product of cooperative research by the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation and Texas Tech University that was undertaken to fill a void in our knowledge about white-tailed deer, specifically their diets and nutritional status in the Cross Timbers region. While the research project was quite focused and serves as the foundation for much of the information presented herein, this publication is broader in scope. Rather than report just specific research results, we seek to make this publication more useful to our target audience of land managers interested in white-tailed deer management in the Cross Timbers by including sections covering various other aspects of management as well. We do not intend for this publication to be a treatise on Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Deer; however we do hope it will serve those who read it by providing some fundamental knowledge about white-tailed deer management in the Cross Timbers.

Relative to food habits of white-tailed deer in the Cross Timbers region, we feel that merely listing names of important food plants would fall short of making this volume a useful tool for land managers. To help land managers assess and manage deer habitat, we include pictures and descriptions of important food plants. We hope the pictoral account will aid in the identification of important deer foods as well as be helpful to anyone in the region who has a need to identify plants.

Acknowledgements
This publication, as well as the research project that serves as the foundation for much of the information presented herein, was funded by the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation. We wish to thank Noble Foundation President John Snodgrass, Noble Foundation Agricultural Division Director George Hedger, and former Noble Foundation Agricultural Division Director Gary Simmons for their support of this project. We especially wish to thank the Noble Foundation Board of Trustees for perceiving the need and funding the project.

We wish to thank former Texas Tech University graduate students Gary Van Vreede and Thomas DeLiberto. Much of the food habits and nutritional information in this publication is based upon their Master’s theses. We wish to recognize and thank former Texas Tech University Research Scientist James A. Pfister who helped plan and guide early stages of the deer food habits and physiology studies at the Noble Foundation Wildlife Unit. We offer special thanks to Gretchen Scott, former Texas Tech University Laboratory Supervisor, for her assistance with food habits analysis and training of technicians.

Rex Umber, with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, is gratefully acknowledged for his contributions to the research project, not the least of which were a good eye and a steady hand.

We wish to thank Noble Foundation Visual Communications Specialist Alan Hoyt for his invaluable photographic assistance and technical advice. Noble Foundation Media and Communications Specialist Joe Lobell is gratefully acknowledged for his efforts in the final preparation of this publication. The long days and nights of field work by former Noble Foundation Wildlife and Fisheries Technicians J. Randy Jackson and R. Lynn Timberlake are also appreciated.

James K. McPherson (Oklahoma State University Professor of Botany) and Constance E. S. Taylor (Southeastern Oklahoma State University Professor of Biology) are acknowledged for their assistance in plant identification and verification. Additional support personnel are too numerous to mention individually, but their contributions are acknowledged and appreciated.