Habitat Requirements:
Overall Use of Forage Classes
Knowledge of the overall use of the various forage classes is instructive relative to the types of forage eaten by deer and facilitates comparisons with areas of similar climates but different vegetational communities. The three basic forage classes referred to in this publication are forbs, browse, and grasses/grasslikes. Certain other types of plants, such as various mushrooms, were catagorized and lumped into the "others" or miscellaneous catagory.

Forbs, many of which are often called "weeds", are defined as herbaceous (nonwoody), usually broad-leaved, flowering plants. Although some are monocots (parallel veins in leaves), most are dicots (netted veination in leaves). Forbs include all flowering herbaceous plants that are not grasses or grasslikes.

Grasses and grasslikes are herbaceous plants that are members of either the grass family (Gramineae), the sedge family (Cyperaceae), or the rush family (Juncaceae). All of these plants are monocots and typically have relatively narrow leaves with parallel veins.

Browse refers to perennial woody vegetation including their fruits. Trees, shrubs, and many vines fall into this category. When referring to a type of plant, the terms "woody" and "browse" are synonomous. Because acorns (fruits of oaks) are such a seasonally important constituent of deer diets, they are reported separately as well as included in the browse category.

Of the approximately 500 species of plants documented on the NFWU (Appendix A), 113 species of plants and 41 plant complexes were identified in the rumen samples (Appendix B). Of these, 47 species or complexes were considered important–that is, each of the 47 comprised at least 1% of the deer diets during a collection period. These important forages accounted for 93% of the overall diet. Over 90% of the rumen contents were identified at least to complex level. This means that the number of unknowns or unidentifiables in the rumen contents was minimal and that the results should indeed reflect what was consumed. The fact that such a relatively small group of plants, as compared with those available, made up the elite group of 47 indicates deer were being highly selective in their food choices.

Relative to the overall use of major forage classes, deer at the NFWU consumed primarily forbs and browse (Figure 2). Grasses and grasslikes were consumed in substantially lesser amounts. Forbs made up 44% of the average annual diets of deer, while browse made up 41%. The acorn component of browse accounted for an average of 8% annually. Grasses and grasslikes accounted for 13% of the average annual diets. The "others" category, which consisted primarily of various mushrooms, made up about 1%. A high degree of forb and browse use and relatively low use of grasses and grasslikes has also been reported for white-tailed deer elsewhere in the southeastern United States.