Effects of Deer Density and Land Use on Mass of White-Tailed Deer

Local and regional land use changes, such as the expansion of cropland for cellulosic biofuels, and the population density of white-tailed deer can affect the health and body mass of white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus. We collected hunter-harvest data for 1,731 white-tailed deer from DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa from 2003 to 2010. We used linear mixed-effects models and information theoretic methods to estimate effects of density of white-tailed deer and proportion of total landcover area converted from cropland to cool- or warm-season grassland on body mass of white-tailed deer. Density of white-tailed deer at DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge ranged from 36.5 to 50.6 deer/km2, and the proportion of landcover at DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge that remained cropland each year ranged from 14.9 to 23.2%. Body mass was inversely related to population density (−1.4 kg/5.5 deer/km2) and proportion of cropland (−1.3 kg/3.1% conversion of total land area from...