Competition in sympatric white-tailed deer and cattle populations in southern pine forests of Oklahoma and Arkansas, USA

Abstract

Inferences on competitive interactions between while-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann, 1780) and cattle were made using information on diet composition and quality. We hypothesized that dietary overlap between deer and cattle would increase with cattle density and that quality of deer diets would be higher in areas not exposed to cattle than in areas that were stocked with moderate to high cattle densites. Three treatments were delineated in McCurtain County, Oklahoma (heavy cattle stocking), and Howard (moderate to light cattle stocking) and Pike (no cattle stocking) counties, Arkansas. Treatments were similar with respect to soils and vegetation but differed with respect to cattle stocking rate (ie number of cattle/ha). Deer and cattle diets and concentrations of fecal nitrogen (FN) (an index to dietary quality) were determined from feces that were obtained from 12 radomly selected collection areas (4/treatment) from October 1986 to October 1988.