White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

County List:

Rule:

Forested or Mixed Forested/Nonforested Landscapes

Non-wintering and Wintering Habitat Requirements may be distributed across the NEIGHBORHOOD

Non-wintering:
      (Any Upland Deciduous (Regen))
      or (Any Upland Mixed (Regen))
      or Grass
      or Upland Brush
      or Savanna
      or Small Grains/Forage Crops
      or Fields/Pasture

Winter (Foraging and Cover) 1st alternative:
      (Aspen (Regen))
      or (Paper Birch (Regen))
      or (Assorted Hardwoods (Regen))
      or (Northern Hardwoods (Regen))
      or (Hemlock (Regen))
      or (Mixed Northern Hardwoods (Regen))
      or (Mixed Upland Hardwoods (Regen))
      or (Northern White Cedar (Regen))
      or (Mixed Lowland Conifer (Regen))
   adjacent to (Winter Cover):
      (Hemlock (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (White Pine (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Northern White Cedar (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))    
      or (Mixed Lowland Conifer (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))

Wintering 2nd alternative:
      (Hemlock (Uneven))

Habitat List:

view size class definitions

Literature:

This species prefers open forest environments interspersed with meadows, woodland clearings, or farmland. Before European settlement, the northern Great Lakes region was covered with climax coniferous forest and provided very poor habitat for this mammal, but extensive logging in the late 19th century opened the forests and resulted in a huge increase in the deer population.

In northern areas with heavy snow, deer spend the winter at traditional locations in groups numbering up to 50 animals. Such "yards" are often in low-lying areas with dense cover.

In the winter, a white-tail browses on buds and twigs nipped from maple, dogwood, aspen, willow, and sumac; in the north, a deer depends more on evergreens, particularly white cedar. In the summer, it munches on grasses, herbs, and leaves. The white-tail relishes acorns and mushrooms and competes with man for apples, corn, celery, and soybeans.

Habitat: Forest edges, swamp borders, areas interspersed with fields and woodland openings. During winter months when snow depth exceeds 16 inches deer will "yard" in stands of conifers, forming a central resting area with trails packed through the snow.

Special Habitat Requirements: Dense cover for winter shelter, adequate browse.

Habitat Preferences: The Michigan white-tailed deer lives in two major habitat types: (1) the boreal conifer-hardwood forest environment characteristic of the Upper Peninsula and much of the northern half of the Lower Peninsula, and (2) the temperate hardwood forest environment chiefly in the southern half of the Lower Peninsula. In both of these habitat types, this cervid thrives best in the early stages of forest successions-a mosaic of cultivated and fallow fields, shrub-fringed forest edges, and second-growth, sapling-sized timber. Such cover and food diversity has generally been the result of the human intrusion, where torch, axe, plow, and ultimately the effective enforcement of laws controlling deer harvest have singly or in combination helped produce Michigan's sizeable white-tailed deer population.

In prehistoric times Michigan presumably was covered to a great extent by a canopy of mature tree growth which shaded the leaf-littered forest floor to such an extent that browsing deer could rarely reach the undergrowth. Natural fires, tree-falls, occasional glades, openings at edges of swamps and along streams did, however, break the ecologic monotony in many places. Indians and later the first European settlers found the white-tailed deer plentiful in the temperate hardwood forests of the southern half of the Lower Peninsula. Here the forest canopy was more open, the soils were more productive, the winter temperatures were relatively milder, and the snowfall was generally lighter-all in marked contrast to the inhospitable conditions of the northern parts of the state, where early settlers found few white-tailed deer.

As mentioned, intensive logging after 1850 opened these northern forests, diversified the habitats by successional set-back, possibly discouraged large predators, reduced the then resident moose herd, and opened the country to the adaptable white-tailed deer. Although the better habitat for the white-tailed deer is still in the southern half of the Lower Peninsula, where the so-called "corn-fed" bucks thrive in the mixed farm country, the northern forests also remain favorable; the climate in these latitudes continues to be restrictive, however, even with abundant winter food. In addition, forest maturation in many areas is gradually reducing the habitat quality. On the bright side, the recent acceleration of an industrially-compatible, short-rotation forest management program (for obtaining wood chips for pulp, energy, chemicals, and pressed-wood products), is bound to insure better white-tailed deer habitat.

Behavior: In much of the northern half of the Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula, the white-tailed deer annually faces severe winter conditions-an unusual challenge for a species which enjoys such widespread distribution in temperate and tropical climates. Factors which certainly influence deer survival in northern boreal Michigan include: (1) sizeable snowfall, deep drifts, and snow crusts which will not bear their weight, (2) low ambient temperature, (3) poor quality winter browse, (4) uncertain summer range quality which influences the physical condition of deer entering the winter period, and (5) susceptibility to predation by feral or free-ranging dogs and possibly coyotes. In response to these factors, northern Michigan whitetails seek winter shelter in dense coniferous (often mixed with deciduous) cover in low-elevation swamps. Such an area, called a "yard" is frequented winter after winter by the same individuals or their offspring.

The major limiting factor in the northernmost parts of the deer's range is chiefly climate. To conserve energy, yarded deer may generally become inactive, walk slowly, eat less in late winter than in early winter, and exhibit low ecological metabolism. Apparently the deer's energy is better conserved by remaining more or less inactive and fasting in the shelter of a yard than foraging in exposed areas.