What do deer eat in the winter?

Central VirginiaWhat do deer eat in the winter?
First, deer survival during winter is determined primarily by two things: the availability of high-quality food in autumn, and softwood (e.g., hemlock, spruce, fir) cover during winter. So, how do each of these things affect deer survival?





Body fat accumulation in autumn


As you know, deer store body fat for the winter.The amount of body fat a deer has when it enters the winter directly determines if it will survive until spring. Deer accumulate body fat by increasing the amount of food they eat in September and October, when high-quality foods such as acorns and beech nuts are abundant. During these two months, fat accumulation in adult deer results in a 20-30% increase in body weight. Fawns on the other hand, accumulate only about half this much fat, because most of the food they eat is used for growing muscles and bones. By November, most deer have accumulated all of the fat they will need to survive the winter.





Deer voluntarily reduce food consumption in winter


Beginning in November, deer in the Northeast do something surprising; they voluntarily begin eating less food! Deer continue to reduce the amount of food they eat each day until around late-February, when they are eating about 50% less food per day than they did in September. During winter, deer compensate for eating less food by relying on their fat reserves for energy. In fact, an adult deer may get as much as 40% of their daily nutrition during winter from fat reserves. However, a healthy deer can only maintain this level of fat use for about three months, so it must conserve its fat. Deer conserve fat and the amount of energy they need by reducing their activity (e.g., they travel less) and by spending most of their time in softwood cover, where the snow is less deep and temperatures are warmer. These behaviors that conserve energy are especially important for fawns because they have fewer fat reserves than adult deer.


What do deer eat in the winter?
twigs and branches and tree bark.


these obviously arent very nutritous, but the deers get through it by eating well in the months before





they have to travel over large areas to find enough to feed the herd, which is why in zoos etc, they are fed with pellets in winter :)
Along with eating bark and twigs, they eat moss under the snow and evergreen parts.