Life Sciences Commons^™

Diets Of White-Tailed Deer At Avery Island, Louisiana, Nathan D. Rains

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

I conducted a food habits study of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) at Avery Island, Louisiana, to determine if deer diets differed among seasons. In 1997, I randomly collected 25 seasonal fecal pellet groups in January. April, August and October respectively I also collected reference forage plant samples in conjunction with fecal pellet collections I estimated botanical composition of deer diets based on a microscopic analysis of fecal pellets I compared diets using a chi- squared contingency table to assess significant seasonal variation I also used Kulczynski's similarity index to determine degree of similarity among seasonal diets

I found significant differences …

Diet Overlap Of Native And Translocated Northern White-Tailed Deer In Southeastern Louisiana, Brian Matthew Zielinski

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

I used microhistological analysis of fecal pellets to estimate and compare seasonal diet compositions between free-ranging, southern and translocated. northern woodland white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) on Golden Ranch Hunting Farm, Gheens, Louisiana,. over four consecutive seasons, from January 1997 through January 1998. I analyzed pellet groups with Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS) and wet chemistry techniques to evaluate and compare crude protein levels between populations of deer and provide indices of diet quality. On average, native and translocated deer diets were 87.65% similar during the entire study, and were significantly associated during all seasons ( P < 0.0000 I ). suggesting that deer fed on similar plant species in like quantities throughout the year. Few differences were found in plant selection frequencies per fecal sample. hut significant differences were detected (P 0.00 l) among deer populations in the use of Berchemia scandens and Vitis rotundifolia during spring. Northern deer also ingested a greater diversity of plants (P < 0.05) during spring and winter; and fecal crude protein levels were similar (P > 0.05) in all seasons …