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2025 Southeast Deer Study Group
Monday February 17, 2025 2:00pm - 2:20pm EST
Rangelands are often managed for cattle production and wildlife. Understanding the effects of cattle on wildlife relative to other factors, such as precipitation, is key to effective multiuse management. We experimentally manipulated cattle management on East Foundation’s San Antonio Veijo Ranch in South Texas where white-tailed deer are not exposed to harvest or supplemental feed. We measured recruitment indices using evidence of lactation in autumn from 284 adult female deer captured from 2011-2023 and known fate survival to 12-weeks of 90 neonates monitored during 2020-2023. We characterized capture locations of adult females and birth sites of neonates based on landscape attributes, precipitation, and cattle management. We fit generalized linear mixed models predicting the lactation status (yes or no) as a function of these covariates. We fit Cox-proportional hazards models to predict mortality hazard of neonates as a function of the same predictors. We found the presence of cattle during the fawning season (June-August) reduced the probability of lactation in adult females and increased the odds of neonate mortality. We also found both recruitment indices increased strongly with spring rain and moderately with brush density. Our results demonstrate a benefit of the rotational grazing treatment, such that deer recruitment improved where cattle were absent during the fawning season. While rainfall patterns strongly influenced recruitment, manageable factors including cattle grazing and brush density offer potential approaches to manipulate deer recruitment. Our results highlight the utility of managing these factors to achieve deer recruitment objectives.
Speakers
KL

Kevin Lovasik

Graduate Research Assistant, Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute
Monday February 17, 2025 2:00pm - 2:20pm EST
Chesapeake ABCD

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