What Do Whitetail Deer ACTUALLY EAT?! | Native Browse & Food Plots

Dr. Marcus Lashley with the University of Florida Deer Lab discusses the diets of whitetail deer. As hunters and conservationists, we often think about food plots as the best supplemental food source for deer. But what if we are missing some important information about a whitetail deer's diet that might change the way we manage them? Dr. Lashley has been involved in numerous studies that show that deer are much more selective in what they choose to eat than most of us might realize! Watch this and take these important points into consideration when setting up a management plan for deer and other wildlife on your property!

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[JustJordoe]

incredible video, love the channel. just starting out at 20 years old with no positive role models so I really appreciate what yall are doing with this channel

[jc]

I saw a deer eat a hotdog right off the grill on a YouTube short a few mins ago. Lol

[francisconti]

GREAT INFO, GREAT VIDEO!
Dr. Lashley, I have been blessed to be able to walk alongside wild and suburban wild whitetail for over 40 years, you're on point! I would also include surface & subterrain mycoflora in the biome..easily overlooked in the complexity..
They are wonderfjl animals to share life with, as an amateur I have been lucky to focus upon diet, development, and behavior as well as communicating & coordinating with a matriarchal family group, I had a job where we comingled, did our "work" together, helped each other out and rested together. I was so lucky to have a relationship of equals with the matriarchs, especially one who was a buddy. It is amazing how much we can learn from them, and discovering how much they learn from us.
My deer have been such a blessing in education, they've given me priceless opportunities..I'm still trying to compile "everything" into a good product...lotta work, but joyous to explore, experience, and learn!
I salute your mutual passion!😃👍

[tonyfrederick]

ery well explained Dr. Lashley. You took the very complicated deer diet and nutritional needs and put it into very understandable terms.

[outdoorztime]

Great and interesting information, Sir! I am glad you mentioned the Beautyberry Bush. Last season I hunted from sun up to noon. I had seen a spike, but that was it. On the way back to my truck I spotted what I thought was a bird that had flown from a limb (the limb was shaking). With a closer look, I discovered I was not going to go home empty-handed. A nice seven-point was eating from the Beautyberry Bush. There were acorns not far away, but the native bushes were closer to the buck's bedding area.

[rrrrrr]

Marcus seems like a good guy. Interesting stuff.

[markr.]

I’ve been trying to establish patches of red osier dogwood to help with their diversity options....tubed 60 bunches of propagated stems from early Spring and were doing great, took tubes off a week or so ago and they are getting hit hard! Hope the root system had enough time to develop. Love watching deer eat Maple and Aspen leaves that have just fallen! Amazing animals and they sure do mix it up!

[jeremysilcox]

I have noticed that some deer may prefer some plants of the same species and avoid others. I believe that they can detect which plants are healthier and better fertilized over the others even within the same species.

[slugcatcher]

Nice, common sense explanation. I do wonder how you got Billy Bob Thornton to do the voiceover though.

[JoeSyxpack]

Interestingly, I was working on my garden yesterday and noticed that the deer had been browsing heavily on the nightshade (Solanum americanum) that grows wild all over my property. Nightshade can be quite toxic, but it also has very high levels of nitrates, which I assume is what appealed to the deer.

[mrmike]

So what do pure wild deer that have never seen a food plot eat ? I primarily hunt public land some lands grow small food plots but for example eglin a.f.b in the panhandle of fl there are absolutely none what would they eat there?
I would love to see someone do a pure public land geared informative channel.

[learning_the_outdoors]

Do deer only eat things that are green in the winter? I ask because in the woods i hunt everything is grey or brown and looks dead or dormant. I'm not sure what the deer are eating during this time of year. I'm in mississippi.

[greeniejeannie]

They eat, bird seed, hummingbird nectar, hostas, anything in my yard. Day, night. Licking the deer repellents. Eyeballing me from 2 feet away. Basically what do they eat? Whatever strikes them at the moment. I think a lot of sampling like at the COSTCO.

[cayugawolf]

In a nutshell, you never know what a deer wants to eat! 😂

[katherineallen]

this vid is good but it take the him so long to get to the what the wite tali deer eats

[TrehanCreekOutdoors]

I get the premise of this video which is essentially the concept of providing a wide variety of native browse and specific food plot plants for deer using a given habitat. I fully agree with that idea and practice it on my own land. But beyond that common sense principle, the idea that game biologists or anyone else can say with any degree of scientific certainty WHY a single deer, or a whole herd of deer, pick certain browse to eat at a given point in time is ludicrous. Humans have no way to comprehend how animals think about a given food item nor why an animal may choose to eat a given plant item one day and reject eating it another day.

If you think you can explain food selectin by an animal, explain why my housecat refuses to eat Friskies liver pate cat food. Is it lacking in nutrition? Nope. Provides the animal with tons of the nutrients it needs. So if my cat chose its foods because it knows it must intake certain nutrients, it should be eating the liver pate with gusto. But she won't touch it.

Does it taste bad to cats? Probably not as thousands of cans are sold and consumed by cats all over the world every day. So why won't my cat eat that particular cat food but will eat many other brands and types of canned cat food? In fact, she eats a full can of some variety every single day. But only of the ones SHE decides appeals to her preferences. Same thing with any given deer in the woods. They all pick what THEY want to eat, not necessarily based on nutritional content nor necessarily on taste as the next deer walking behind them might eat the very leaves the first deer rejected.

My cat will eat popcorn, pretzels, and sausage pizza too. I don't think she cares if those things might be nutritionally deficient for her dietary needs. Come to think of it, my reason for eating those same treats isn't about nutrition either! It might be very interesting to conduct some experiments to see just what human junk foods deer might greedily eat. My point here is that until experiments are run which demonstrate deer refuse to eat junk foods that might be nutritionally bad for them no one can really say the theory that deer pick their foods based upon fulfilling their nutritional needs is a valid, PROVEN theory.

Thus it may be that, from a deer hunter's perspective, it is just as valid to plant persimmons or other fruit trees to attract deer rather than a clover food plot. It is a known fact deer will stand under a persimmon tree dropping ripe fruits to await them to fall. Deer eating those fruits are basically loading up on sugar, which has limited nutritional benefits for the deer. So much for deer picking what they need to eat based on nutrition. While it might be a good idea to provide a balanced habitat for deer if you are raising them in a petting zoo, from the standpoint of investing dollars in land management to attract deer for hunting, it may be just as productive and efficient to plant fruit trees that drop high sugar content over ripe fruits. Or put out a salt lick. After all, if you are just going to shoot the deer as soon as they arrive at the fruit trees or in a food plot, why worry about the long term nutritional needs of the deer? Just put forth whatever the deer love to eat and buy some ammunition!

Just some "food" for thought. Feel free to differ.

[ASMRcandy]

I threw a cookie at it and it sniffed it then ran

[lollypop]

They eat my whole garden including the trees grass roses bulbs vegetables lemons. They dont eat lavenders

[seanbalch]

I could listen to him all day. Great stuff

[duaneholcomb]

Depends on the time of year they forage one tender shoots of young trees and bushes. They eat. Tender grass. Black, berries or blue berries. They eat seeds of maple trees. They eat acorns but prefer white oak type oaks. Over red oaks because of the tanic acid, , etc, there other stuff but I'm, not going to, list it all, ,