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An assessment is carried out on the application effects of special herbicide, prescribed fire, and fertilizer to enhance forage output for white-tailed deer in naturally restored pine stands and food plots in north-central Mississippi. Increased production in such controlled areas indicate the cost-effectiveness of such treatment in growing superior quality and natural deer food as compared to the quality in unmanaged regions.

A study is presented of the survival chances and causes of death of rehabilitated and released white-tailed deer fawns back into the wild in Missouri. Results reveal that most released fawns die in the wilderness or around human habitation, and hence, it is advised that fawns be left alone for greater survival opportunities on being discovered by humans. D

The survival and cause-specific death rates of newborn fawn female and adult female white-tailed deer in a vigorously farmed region of Minnesota was documented through an investigation. Survival was high due to thick and quality vegetation, but mortality was equally high, and caused mainly by hunting.

The effects of two types of stochasticity, environmental variability, and management control error, on state-dependent strategies (SDSs) harvest policies for a white-tailed deer model are examined. Three rules of thumb for harvest management of long-lived vertebrates in stochastic systems are suggested.

Studies conducted to obtain current population methods of Florida Key deer and for outlining a protocol for future monitoring are discussed. Findings reveal that all the three methods, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) road survey data, and mortality data, and mark-recapture data, can be used for monitoring changes in the density of Key deer.

Cause-specific mortality, survival rates, and habitat characteristics related to fawn survival in forested landscape and an agricultural landscape in Central Pennsylvania are quantified. Survival-ship functions were estimated and influence on fawn survival of road density habitat edge density, habitat patch diversity and proportion of herbaceous habitat was assessed.

The theory of reasoned action could be useful to judge the type of information that could influence attitudes towards and support for novel suburban deer management techniques. The effects of tailoring information to the concerns of stakeholders were tested and two mail surveys were conducted.

A successful hunting ethic should be logically consistent and appealing to the moderate majority as the non-hunting, non-animal rights-advocate majority determine the fate of hunting. An alternative ethic that combines Aldo Leopold's vision of an expanding community with traditional utilitarian and rights-based evaluations of ethical criteria within n-dimensional frameworks is discussed.

An evaluation of the sex-age-kill model for white-tailed deer hunting is presented. The model's precision in estimating abundance is dependent on the precision of input parameters. A cost function of obtaining estimates economically is also discussed.

Research on Oregon's Columbian white-tailed deer population indicates that fawn survival is too poor to produce sufficient recruits for conservation efforts. Abandonment and predation were found to be the primary known causes of death. Survival rates for all deer were lowest in the winter, but did not vary according to gender.

White-tailed deer populations were found to shift closer to foot-bait sites placed within their home ranges. As food-bait traps are frequently used for deer populations for administering contraceptives, improving hunting success rates, and implementing tick control policies, the implications of altering core areas of deer activity are discussed.

Large effects of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) upon individual plants, plant populations and communities have been documented in a number of studies. However, well-supported experimental measures of the magnitude and geographical extent of these effects are still surprisingly scarce. Deer-caused changes in stem morphology and reductions in plant growth rates are well-documented in some parts of the North America. Furthermore, deer have been shown to affect the composition of several plant communities in the north-central and northeastern United States. There are some documented cases of deer-caused reductions in plant survival; most of these are tree seedlings and saplings. However, many studies have detected no effects on plant survival or fecundity, or have found that negative effects occur only in a fraction of years, seasons, sites or deer densities. Little is known about population-level or ecosystem-level impacts. Many regions and plant communities with large deer populations have not been studied. Whereas deer density is clearly important in determining spatial and temporal variation in the presence and magnitude of deer effects, other factors that may modify the effects of deer density are poorly understood.

James M. Mueller [*] Since its accidental introduction at the port of Mobile, Alabama, circa 1940 (Buren 1972; Rhoades 1977), the red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta has expanded its [...]

Effects of grazing by white-tailed deer on populations of an understory forb, or Trillium species, have been studied in fragmented deciduous forests in the Big Woods forest ecosystem in southeastern Minnesota. An exclosure experiment, transplant experiments, and comparisons of Trillium populations at different study sites showed no significant changes for current-year herbivory on reproduction in the year after. Deer preferred large plants in a reproductive stage. Flowering rates at one site with high overwinter deer densities for at least the five years before show indications that cumulative effects of grazing over some years can cut down reproduction in years thereafter. Changes in landscape structure and deer numbers have changed relationships between plants and deer in such a way that grazing can bring on local disappearance of such sensitive forbs as Trillium. Long-term management of deer at low densities seems to be required for conservation and restoration of fragmented eastern North America forests.

Factors that affect killing rates of white tailed deer by coyotes are examined.