White-tailed deer are the most prolific of the Earth’s 42 deer species. Well, that’s the opinion of Harry Jacobson, but who can argue? He’s one of the most respected wildlife researchers in today’s scientific community.
Aside from colonizing a wide range of habitats and environmental conditions, whitetails, according to Jacobson, “thrive in the midst of the disturbances caused by the destructive invader of the world, man.”
A primary reason for the whitetail’s success, noted Jacobson, “is its reproductive strategies: The whitetail can breed at an early age, select the best sires in a herd, produce more than one offspring per year, arrange for the young to be born at a favorable time of year, and even alter the sex ratio within the herd to maintain a healthy population.”
Nonetheless, whitetail populations aren’t equally prolific or healthy. Doe health and productivity might vary greatly by area or year, even within the same region, depending on nutrition. Clearly, nutrition controls the growth, reproduction and survival of whitetails throughout their range.
PIONEER RESEARCH
Studies conducted in the 1950s and 1960s by Louis Verme were among the first to document how diet influences doe productivity. Verme’s findings
