TEACHER GUIDE

TOPICS:  Natural history, wildlife management, ecology

LEVEL:  Middle and high school

TIME:  1-3 hours in the field on successive days.

ADVANCE PREPARATION:  Select or recommend suitable sites for your students to do their field work (see answer to question 4 below).  Some students living in rural environments may be able to do this activity at home over a weekend.  Make sure students have the necessary equipment and review the SAFETY NOTE below.  Some preparation may be needed before studying deer, such as identification of tracks and scats.  You may wish to collect samples of deer scat to show your students.  To preserve, dry in the sun and mount them on a small square of plywood using silicon adhesive .

MATERIALS: A Field Guide to the Mammals and A Field Guide to Animal Tracks of the Peterson Field Guide Series (Houghton-Mifflin) are useful .

SAFETY NOTE: Students should NOT work alone in unfamiliar locations.  Groups of 2 or 3 are recommended.  Try to insure that no one gets lost by providing compass and maps of the areas to be studied.  You may wish to check student map and compass skills. Be sure that everyone is advised on proper winter clothing .

PREDICTION: In class discussion, encourage creative, logical, and critical thinking. We recommend that you introduce the following ideas if they are not suggested by students: Deer signs may be the result of a few deer over a long time or many deer over a short time. In winter, deer congregate in habitats that offer cover and shelter from the wind; they avoid areas with deep snow even if the food supply is adequate .

STEP I: For example, the area of a 50 m square study site is

2500 m²/(10000 m²/ha) = 0.25 ha.

If 26 scats are found in the study area, the estimated population size is

26 scats/(13 scats/deer) = 2 deer

2 deer/0.25 ha = 8 deer/ha.

QUESTIONS 3-8 require higher order thinking skills. We recommend that you discuss these questions in class before having students write out their answers .

2. Answers will vary .

3. Feeding, bedding, protection from weather are possibile answers .

4. Answers will vary. Habitats that support deer populations include ecotone (edge between field and forest), early successional tree/shrub communities, and agricultural areas. Both mule and white-tails seek lowland regions in winter because these areas are sheltered and have less snow.  White-tailed deer prefer conifer swamps (cedar, spruce, balsam, hemlock) in the north, wooded valleys (mountain laural, rhododendron) and the southeast slopes of unwooded hilly country.  Mule deer select pine-dominated woodlands or riparian areas in the winter .

5. Mark and recapture methods, aerial counts, and radio telemetry methods are possible answers .

6. Rabbits or hare by tracks, woodpeckers by nest holes, and owls by pellets are possible answers .

7. Answers will vary. Collecting more data (larger or additional study sites over more time) will always yield more reliable results. Direct observation of the deer from a blind would supply additional new information.