Annual Cycles of the Kidney Fat Index in a Southeastern White-Tailed Deer Herd

Abstract

Body condition has been defined as levels of fat deposited in different parts of the body (Harris 1945, Riney 1955). Fat animals are not necessarily in good health, but the assumption is normally made that animals with relatively high levels of fat also have adequate levels of other resources within the body. There are a number of indices of body fat for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) (Stockle et al. 1978), but in most cases their relationships to the level of total body fat have not been established, and their relative usefulness is not known. The relationship between kidney fat index (KFI, Riney 1955) and percent body fat has been defined mathematically for white-tailed deer from the Savannah River Plant (SRP) herd (Finger et al. 1981). Hence, KFI is potentially a useful predictor of levels of total body fat for SRP white-tailed deer. The usefulness of any index of fat depends upon knowledge of its natural range of variation. KFI might be expected to vary as a function of numerous variables but especially with season, habitat, sex, and age of deer. The objective of this study was to describe the effects of season, sex, and age on the KFI of white-tailed deer from SRP in South Carolina.