Biology And Management Of White-tailed Deer In Alabama

cycle of poor deer herd and habitat conditions. This cycle is not easily
interrupted and often cannot be stopped.
FACTORS INFLUENCING CARRYING CAPACITY
Carrying capacity fluctuates throughout the year depending
on habitat conditions, rainfall, and various habitat changes, such as
timber and farming operations. Supplemental feeding and planting
often are employed in an attempt to increase CC for a particular unit of
deer habitat. These activities are seldom of sufficient scale to affect CC
significantly. Such practices may only serve to compound problems
associated with gross overpopulation. In these instances, attempts to
reduce herd density are more desirable than attempts to increase carrying
capacity.
Actual biological CC for deer may not coincide with a social or
ecologically based carrying capacity. An area where deer/human interactions
are a primary concern may have a much lower CC based on
factors such as deer/vehicle collisions or deer damage to crops and ornamental
plants. This may be referred to as social carrying capacity. A
case involving endangered or fragile plant communities may have an
acceptable CC for deer much lower than is biologically practical. In
many cases, social CC is greater than biological CC as people often desire
to have more deer than the habitat can support.
Rainfall usually is the only climatic factor affecting CC in the
Deep South. Habitat quality may be improved in the form of abundant
mast crops and increased amounts of native browse in years with abundant
rainfall. Physical indices may show corresponding improvements
resulting from increased rainfall in herds maintained below CC. In
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