~3Q9J4 
 
FEEDING HABITS 
 
MOUNTAIN MULE DEER IN THE SIERRA NEVADA 
MOUNTAINS 
By C. S. ROBINSON 
Technical Assistant, U. S. Forest Service 
The author reports his observations of the habits of deer in seeking food
and of 
their forage preferences. He considers it as important to assure deer adequate

natural supplies of feed as the passage of protective laws, and that game
refuges 
cannot be selected intelligently unless their resources for feed, water,
shelter, and 
protection against enemies are satisfactory. 
 
HE FOOD SUPPLY of the native 
deer of California is as great a 
factor in their conservation as 
are any additional laws added to the 
statutes by the state. If we are to pro- 
mote plans for the preservation and in- 
crease of deer in order to take care of 
the constant demand made by hunters 
and others, then the question of the 
character and abundance of their food 
supply becomes one of equal impor- 
tance to their future welfare as any 
other problem affecting their conserva- 
tion. We have sound principles of con- 
structive development of wood, water, 
forage and watershed, and must take 
up the question of game along the same 
lines. 
The necessity of maintaining a proper 
balance between use by domestic stock 
and deer feeding on the same range is 
one of the essentials of good range 
management. Certain grazing allotments 
and game refuges within national for- 
ests, and foothill range of the large 
interior valleys of California used dur- 
ing winter and spring, have already 
been reported as showing marked signs 
of competition for feed. 
 
It is not improbable that such con- 
flicts in use will continue to occur. 
Protected areas in forests and parks 
where the rapidly increasing deer may 
be forced to move further afield, due 
to a scarcity of feed, or the demands of 
recreational use, are now being brought 
to our attention, and the presence of 
numbers of deer within a certain area 
cannot be taken as ample evidence that 
no scarcity exists either in animals or 
forage. Changes in vegetative cover 
brought about by repeated fires can 
cause starvation conditions on an area 
that once supported large numbers of 
grazing animals; and migration can 
often be traced to a definite shortage 
of seasonal feed. 
Preference for certain plants over 
others by both game and domestic ani- 
mals is a well-known fact, and in order 
to arrive at a proper carrying capacity 
of a range, a reconnaissance (stock- 
taking) of the forage resources of the 
entire area is made to determine chiefly 
(1) the class of stock to which it is best 
suited and (2) the character, abundance 
and value of the forage cover in terms 
of density or number, and the percent-