Diet diversity of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in a tropical dry forest in Mexico

✍ Scribed by Arceo, Gloria; Mandujano, Salvador; Gallina, Sonia; Perez-Jimenez, Luis Alfredo

• Book ID: 115533013
• Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 303 KB
• Volume: 69
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0025-1461
• DOI: 10.1515/mamm.2005.014

✦ Synopsis

We report on diversity in the diet of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
in a Mexican tropical dry forest. Diet was estimated using the microhistological
analysis of plant epidermis in deer pellet-groups. The sampling was from
1993 to 1994. From the rainy to dry season, the richness and diversity of the
families and species in the diet increased and botanical composition changed.
Deer selected 82 plant species from 20 families; however, 12 species represented
50% of the annual diet. Flowers and fruits of arboreal species were
important during the dry season, as were young leaves of shrub and vine
species during the rainy season. Despite the small size of white-tailed deer in
this tropical dry forest study area, foraging strategies there were similar to
those observed in temperate forests.