November 3, 2000

     Deer bite marks easy to spot

It surprises people unfamiliar with the dentition of a deer to find that, like cattle or other ruminants, they do not have front teeth on the upper jawbone.  Because of this absence of upper teeth it is easy for the trained observer to differentiate between the rough chewed twigs nipped off by deer and the "knife-cut" twigs removed by rabbits or snowshoe hares.

Deer are primarily browsing animals.  They will eat fungi, acorns, grass, and herbs in season.  In the winter they browse twigs of sugar maple, basswood, bur oak, ironwood, staghorn sumac, and other trees and shrubs, eating mostly woody parts which are pencil size or smaller.

Wildlife biologists have found that a healthy deer could eat 10-to-12 pounds of browse (twigs) daily.  A deer could survive on 2-to-3 pounds per day but might be starving; 6-to-8 pounds are needed consistently.  However, white-tailed deer are not strict vegetarians.  They can catch and eat fish in shallow streams, eat small birds, and dig through 6 inches of snow to feed on wintering colonies of ladybug beetles.