Digestibility and Nutritional Value of Autumn Diets of Deer

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
We present energy use and nutritional data for 5 autumn foods of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in New Hampshire. Red oak (Quercus rubra) acorns, red oak and red maple (Acer rubrum) sprout leaves, black birch (Betula lenta) leaves, and wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) were fed in 5 mixed rations to captive deer. Metabolizable energy content/dry g was approximately 25% greater for a high mast diet than a low mast diet. Apparent digestible energy of the diet components ranged from 34 to 64%. Metabolizable energy values ranged from 30% for red oak leaves to 48% for acorns. Metabolizable energy/dry g of acorns was 40% greater than the mean metabolizable energy content of the other 4 foods. Acorndominated diets are important because diets high in metabolizable energy provide optimal fat deposition that is related to winter survival of white-tailed deer.

This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit: