Habitat Requirements:
Cover Requirements
Cover serves a variety of functions for white-tailed deer. Safety from predation is an important cover requirement. Deer need to be able to escape and/or hide from predators, including man. Cover also provides protection from the elements (i.e., sun, rain, snow, wind, etc.).

Different types of cover may be required or used by deer to satisfy their various needs. For example, the cover required by deer while feeding (an activity in which the animal is up and moving around) is generally less concealing than that required for a daytime loafing area (an activity in which the animal is sedentary and does not want to be disturbed). Preferred resting or hiding cover for fawns is usually in a grassy meadow near the edge. Darkness functions as a type of cover; deer often utilize open areas for feeding and loafing during nighttime hours while they avoid them during most daylight hours. Suffice it to say, cover for deer comes in various forms.

Wooded areas are not necessarily a requisite for white-tailed deer in all regions. In regions such as the Gulf Prairies and Marshes in Texas, cover requirements are sometimes fulfilled by tall herbaceous plants. However, woody areas are generally a requirement for deer in the Cross Timbers. Deer in the Cross Timbers have evolved and/or adapted to living in areas that have timber or brush as a significant component of the habitat. If all woody vegetation is removed from a relatively large area in the Cross Timbers, deer usually avoid and/or abandon most of it; this is especially true when the resultant cleared areas are managed for monocultures of grasses which are used little by deer, such as bermuda grass or caucasian bluestem. Besides lack of cover, another important reason large areas without woody vegetation do not support many deer in the Cross Timbers is the associated lack of browse. Woody plants are important food items during fall and winter, as desirable herbaceous foods are generally limited during this time. Thus, woody cover and food are deeply intertwined.

Deer in the Cross Timbers are basically "forest edge" animals; they thrive in situations where forested land meets open land. These edge areas generally have more vegetative diversity than either the forested or open areas and many positive attributes of both types are available in relatively small and readily accessible areas. In other words, the woody cover and food requirements of deer can be met by the associated forested area and the herbaceous food and cover requirements can be met by the associated open areas.

Specific or detailed cover requirements for deer in the Cross Timbers have not been thoroughly examined. Generally speaking however, openings intermixed with wooded areas are more desirable than large blocks of either one. Just as relatively large areas devoid of woody vegetation are not optimum quality deer habitat in the Cross Timbers, neither are relatively large areas completely covered with timber or brush. The optimum percentage of wooded area for most Cross Timbers deer habitat is probably in the range of 40-60%, with patchy, irregularly shaped openings generally less than 200 yards in width. However, quality, as well as quantity, of woody cover is important. The optimum percentage of wooded area depends upon woody species composition and distribution. For example, well interspersed, suitably managed, high quality woody vegetation covering 10-15% of an area, such as a network of wooded riparian zones with some upland brush mottes, can sustain a deer population if management of the associated open areas is favorable to the production of deer foods and herbaceous cover.