deer survey | Buck Manager

From the looks of things, Spring has definitely sprung here in Central Texas! Browse plants are putting on new leafy growth and the moisture-rich soil is covered with high-protein forbs. It appears the white-tailed deer found in this part of the world be eating good for some time to come. Let’s just hope the all-important Spring rains come through for the deer habitat this year. So far, so good. Changing subjects now, and I know it’s a long time until deer survey season, but I recently learned of an interesting study taking place out of Texas State University. The research relates to conducting stand surveys to estimate white-tailed deer populations on individual ranches.

First, I’ve never been a huge fan of stand surveys for whitetail, primarily because I feel other deer survey techniques do a better job of estimating deer populations on individual properties. That being said, some properties just do not lend themselves to being surveyed any other way, so even a low-confidence estimate is better than no estimate at all. In the mentioned study, a high-fenced pasture with a known number of marked white-tailed deer was used. Five deer stands and 5 timed spin-feeders filled with corn were placed within the pasture and were located approximately 1/2 mile from one another, creating a hunting scenario similar to many Texas ranches where deer are hunted. Continue reading “Stand Counts for Surveying White-tailed Deer”

Late summer is not just a stress period for wildlife, its also the time of year to survey white-tailed deer! If you regularly perform surveys on your property, you know the importance of conducting annual population estimates. For those of you that do not, surveys allow deer managers to get a snapshot of the local deer population just prior to hunting season. Without this information, it’s difficult to make harvest recommendations that fall in line with your management objectives.

The first piece of data you need going into the fall is a deer density estimate, or how many acres are available for each deer. In central Texas, where I am located, a good rule of thumb is to 8 to 10 acres of good deer habitat per deer. Free-choice supplemental feeding can drop that to about 6 acres per deer, but one thing to keep in mind is that typically as deer density goes up the quality of individual deer goes down.

The best way to estimate deer density is to perform spotlight surveys. The information collected during spotlight surveys not only includes the number of deer spotted during the census, but also the amount of acreage that was actually observed during the survey. For example, if you have a ranch that is 1,000 acres, you can visually see 200 acres during your census, and you count 20 deer, then you have 100 deer on your property. Without good visibility data the spotlight count data will be worthless. Continue reading “Late Summer: Time for Deer Surveys”