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Prescribed Burning for the Management of White-tailed Deer

Prescribed Burning for Deer Management

Prescribed burning is very effective at maintaining highly-productive white-tailed deer habitat. It is one of the best management tools that we land managers have in our toolbox. However, many folks get real nervous whenever someone talks about burning their property. Over the past several decades, there has been a lot of negative press regarding wildfires and the “destruction” of wildlife habitat. Truth be known, (wild) fires are a natural part of the system. In fact, plants and animals are adapted to the periodic disturbance caused by fire.

Prescribed burns, however, are not and should not be wild. When setting up a prescribed burn, prescribed fire, controlled burn, or whatever you want to call it, the person responsible for the fire basically writes a prescription for the fire. This means that a host of conditions must be met in order to carry out the burn safely and effectively.

Planning a Prescribed Burn

Fire breaks, fuel loads, sustained wind direction, relative humidity, and safety equipment must all be address for a properly conducted prescribed burn. When all conditions of the burn are met, the prescription is completely achieved, and the area can be burned. When used correctly, fire is quite inexpensive on a per acre basis and it’s one of the best management practices for native plants and wildlife.

Burning habitat is a great management tool, but to really appreciate what the process accomplishes, it takes more in-depth research on the topic. However, I will let you know that burning an area provides an increase in the food value of regenerated plant growth. In addition, it keeps plants, primarily browse plants, at a manageable level for white-tailed deer.

Remember, deer can only use plant material they can reach, and this is only about 5-foot in height. If it’s higher than 5-foot, it’s out of a deer’s reach. Browse and forbs provide the bulk of a whitetail’s diet and burning helps both of these plant communities.

Habitat Management & Prescribed Burns

Just about every type of “brush” will root-sprout after a fire, except blueberry cedar which is good for blueberry cedar control (Ashe juniper). This is a key point to keep in mind. Once browse plants grow too high, much of the production is not within the reach of a deer. Burning an area and top-killing these plants will top-kill browse plants and promote root-sprouting, low-level regrowth, and more energy-packed forage.

Forbs in the area will also benefit from prescribed burning, but the time during which a burn is conducted can have varying impacts on both forbs and grasses. We will talk more about this later.

White-tailed Deer Facts

Deer hunters spend a lot of time and resources scouting and hunting white-tailed deer, but if you’re like a lot of folks in the woods, there is a lot you may not know about your quarry. As such, everyone once in a while I’m going help hunters get a better handle on deer and their habits by publishing some simple deer facts. Here’s the first installment:

White-tailed Deer Facts:

-White-tailed bucks most often bed by laying on their right side and facing downwind, which allows them to use their eyes, ears, and excellent sense of smell to detect danger approaching from any direction.

-Research studies have shown that whitetail deer can smell human scent on underbrush for days after we leave the woods! Wary, mature bucks react very negatively when they run across human scent, often becoming leery of the area for weeks afterwards.

-A whitetail’s hair color appears almost bluish-grey in winter. New hair that grows during autumn provides whitetails with added insulation against cold, winter temperatures. The tips on these new hairs are dark, giving the winter hide its richer hue.

-When running from danger, a deer takes very long strides with its tracks sometimes spaced as much as 25-feet apart! That’s what I call getting away!

Find a Hunting Lease in Texas

If you hunt deer then you are always looking for a new place to hang a stand, a new place to setup a trail camera and see what happens.

If you are looking to find a place to hunt white-tailed deer in Texas, then this may be just what you are looking for! The following places are provided as sources of hunting leases and offer hunting for white-tailed bucks, management buck hunts, doe hunts, turkey, and some even hogs and migratory bird hunting.

Check ’em out!

Hunting Lease
Lease Hunter
Texas Hunting Lease
Deer Texas
High Tech Redneck
Texas Lease Connection
Hunter’s Domain
Wild Goose
Magnum Guide Service
Warner Hunting Leases
Texas Outdoorsman

Breeding in White-tailed Fawns

Can whitetail fawns breed? If you have ever witnessed a buck chasing after a doe fawn during the hunting season this question has likely crossed your mind. So, when exactly are white-tailed fawns old enough to participate in the rut, breed and start adding to the local deer population?

It turns out that white-tailed doe fawns are capable of breeding at 6 to 7 months of age and at approximately 70 pounds in weight , but this varies a bit depending upon latitude and individual body condition. In northern states, whitetail fawns may achieve adequate size, but because of their body’s need for energy for survival, reproductive development will be delayed. In addition, shorter days and cooler temperatures provide environmental cues that limit both sexual maturity and the breeding season in does.

In southern parts of the whitetail’s range, doe fawns can achieve puberty in early to mid-winter (January and early February) and be bred during that period. This is typically after the peak breeding season — the rut — after most adult does have been breed in an area. Of course, when big whitetail bucks are observed chasing does during the late winter, at a time when fawns have come into estrus, it’s often deemed a “late rut” by hunters.

The fact is that the rut for the area was right on time, same as usually, it’s just that doe fawns have finally come of age and size to have entered into estrus. As a result, doe fawns that have been bred will give birth to their fawns much later than adult does. Fawn survival of bred fawns is believed to be low because of a lack of fawn-rearing experience and because fawns are born during the middle of the Summer season, when food can be limiting.

Doe fawns with excellent nutritional levels have greater incidence of ovulation and puberty than fawns with inadequate levels of nutrition. With this in mind, in areas with very poor habitat, even yearling does (1.5-year old) can remain sexually immature! In one research study in the mid-west, approximately one-third of doe fawns examined were reproductively fertile in December.

Albino Deer: Facts About White Whitetail

Albino deer. Most have heard of white deer or at least thought about seeing one, but what’s the deal with albino white-tailed deer? Among the questions most often asked is, “What causes some whitetail deer to be albinos?” Well, although albino deer a rare for the most part, albinism is not.

Albinism is typically a recessive trait found in many animals including mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and even plants! Albino animals do not have the gene for normal coloration and do not produce the enzyme responsible for skin, hair, and tissue coloration. The result of this genetic oddity is the total absence of body pigment — so albinos just looks white.

White Deer and Other Albinos

In addition to a lack of body pigment, the eyes of an albino deer and other animals are pink because blood vessels behind the lenses show through the un-pigmented irises. As you might have guessed, albinism is not a great trait for an animal, either predator or prey, unless they live in areas with constant snow cover, constant darkness or possibly even high up in the sky.

Obviously, being totally white year-round makes concealment in most deer habitat difficult. To make matters worse, many albinos generally have poor eyesight, which is another genetic factor linked with albinism.

Albino Deer Photos and Facts

Albino Deer are Rare

Animals that lack pigmentation and have poor eyesight are not common on the surface of the earth. Perhaps that is why albino deer are rare: A lack of camouflage combined with poor eyesight increase the likelihood of fatal attacks by deer predators.

The truth is that plants and animals are constantly adapting through chances i the gene pool, though the process can take hundreds or even thousands of years to impart appreciable changes. Typically, a gene will only be passed on through a population if the traits that those genes control are beneficial to an animal. However, some traits, such as albinism, can be carried by individual animals and not necessarily be exhibited.

Albino Buck Photo

Facts About White, Albino Deer

Because albinism is a recessive trait, both buck (father) and doe (mother) must carry the gene before it even has the possibility to be expressed in their offspring. It is a fact that an albino deer bred to another albino would have only albinos.

An albino bred to a normal brown and white deer (with no recessive genes for albinism) would produce only normally-pigmented white-tailed deer. Offspring from this cross would carry the recessive gene for albinism, but would be normally colored.

When two deer (parents) that are carriers of albinism breed there is a one-in-four chance they will produce an albino fawn. As I mentioned earlier, recessive genetic traits typically become less common unless they confer a survival advantage or are artificially enhanced for expression through selective breeding.

Albino Deer Fawns with Whitetail Doe

The Odds of an Albino Deer

Based on deer hunter reports, only about one deer in 30,000 whitetail is an albino deer! However, it must be pointed out that not all white deer are true albinos. Some white whitetails have normally pigmented noses, eyes and hooves. In that instance, it would only be a genetic mutation for hair color but not other pigments.