Effects of winter conditions on the white-tailed deer of Delta Marsh, Manitoba

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Abstract
Summary of food and habitat preferences of Delta Marsh deer is presented. Wind-chill and snow-cover data were compared for three successive winters and related to the next year's fawning success. Snow cover that limited access to the herbaceous food, rather than wind and low temperature, apparently was responsible for the annual differences in observed fawn:doe ratios. Deer adapted their activity to both weather and snow-cover conditions. Use of different vegetation types was inversely related to snow-cover thickness. It is suggested that acute malnutrition, or inanition, without range depletion may be a common mechanism of regulating populations of ungulates that live near the limits of the species' distribution in areas with severe winters.

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