RiparianRiparian Zone Retreat Zone Retreatand population studiesand population studies

Courtney Zimmerman

Honors Biology II, Period 1

Niche of White Tailed DeerOdocoileus Virginianus

• In the heat of summer it is not unlikely to find a deer in fields but mainly deer inhabit the woods for shelter. They are found in the woods because the color of their fur helps camouflage them in the trees to hide better from predators.

• Deer mainly feed on grass or oats and different types of grain. Deer are herbivores, which means they do not eat meat. Deer can be found eating different types of berries or corn from a farm it all depends an what area the deer is in.

• Deer do not hunt other animals because they are herbivores. A deer can be found hunting its food at anytime of the day.

Factors which Affect Birth Rate of White Tailed Deer

• The deer usually mate in November in northern parts of the US but in the southern parts a deer mates in January or February.

• Deer usually reproduce once every year.

• The gestation period is 6.5 months

• Any where from one to three fawns can be born at one time when a deer is pregnant

• A mother deer is very protective of their young. When they feel that their young is being threatened they will snort of stomp their hooves and sometimes charge. A mother deer hides her babies everytime she goes out to get them food.

• When does your assigned animal begin and end its reproduction?

Factors Which Affect the Death Rate of White Tailed Deer

• A deer is always getting hunted. It could being hunted by humans or coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions and lots more different animals. A Deer is always the prey.

• Most deer live to be 2 to 3 years old. The maximum lifespan is 20 years but very few in the wild live past 10 years.

• Deer can often pick up lice, ticks, roundworm, and mites that can kill them from disease. All of these parasites can be found in well wooded areas and even large fields with high grass.

• Over population is a huge problem for deer. If there are too many then there isn’t enough food and animals die off. This is why hunting is so greatly encouraged because it helps control overpopulation.

Food Chain of Assigned Organism

Producer

Autotroph

Primary Consumer

Omnivore

Secondary Consumer

Carnivore

Tertiary Consumer

Omnivore

Food web of White Tailed Deer

Producer

herbivore

omnivore

Parasite

Carnivore

Population Sampling Techniques

• Population sampling is the process in which a group of representatives are selected and statistically tested. When performing these tests it is very important that they are performed correctly because these tests make generalizations about the population size.

• Describe population sampling techniques used to estimate the size of assigned animal

Stream Quality Data & AnalysisStream Quality Data & Analysis

0

100

200

300

400

500

No. oforganisms

Class IClass IIClass III

• This graph represents that the stream tested has good water quality.

• The first class indicates good water quality and since the highest number of organisms are from the first class this indicates that the stream tested has good water quality.

• Because the largest amount of organisms were from class one we pretty much were only able to research class one organisms.

• I researched a class one organism and if there was a higher concentration of class 3 organisms then my organism would not be able to survive in class 3 environment.

Water Testing Data & AnalysisWater Testing Data & Analysis• The lower the nitrate and

phosphate levels and the more neutral the pH level is the better the water quality.

• The ideal ranges of powdermill would be 0 for nitrate, 0 for phosphate, and 6.5-7 for the pH. All of these ranges represent a healthy stream.

• My organism would be greatly affected because if the water they drank were from the marsh they would have a greater chance of catching a parasite and even getting sick from the water. If the deer becomes sick then it becomes weak and would eventually die. The best stream for the organism to be around would be the powdermill stream. Even the temperature of the water and turbity of the stream is good for the ecosystem

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100120140160180200

Nitrate

Oxygen

pH Phosphates

StreamMarshMine

Soil Testing & AnalysisSoil Testing & Analysis

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

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8

pH Potash

Phosphorus

Nitrogen

Riparian

School Site

• Nitrogen is essential for the metabolism, pH controls how they use nutrients, phosphates are important for roots and stimulating flowering.

• The ideal ranges of the soil is a neutral pH and a trace of potash and a trace of nitrogen and phosphorus.

• The chemicals can potentially harm the plants that grow around the soil and also it can potentially harm the animals that eat the plants that grow. It is very important to animal life that the soil is not too acidic and stays healthy for the animal life that eats it.

Positive and Negative Factors

• The stream at powdermill would probably not harm the white tailed deer if one was to drink out of it because all of the factors say that the stream is healthy for animals to drink. The marsh however could potentially harm the white tailed deer if it were to drink from that because the nitrate and phosphate levels were too high and also the pH was a bit acidic which could make the animal sick. The mine water wouldn't be as bad for the deer as the marsh water would be but it wouldn't be as good for the deer as the stream water, because of the pH.

•The riparian zone soil would be good for the plant life that the deer eats because it is high in potassium and the pH is low and almost neutral.

Conclusion

• I’ve learned that ecosystem is a very important thing and that most people just overlook it and you cant do that we need to keep this world a more healthier place for us and the animal life living on it.

• I loved researching my niche the white tailed deer. I found out a lot of new things that I never knew about a deer before. Like the birth patterns and how the babies only stay with their mother one to two years and most deer are killed at three years old.

• An environmental topic I might want to further research would be global warming

Works Cited

http://www.nhptv.org/NATUREWORKS/whitetaileddeer.htm

White Tailed Deer: Ecology and Management By: Lowell K. HallsWhite Tailed Deer Habitat By: Timothy Edward