Mule Deer

Mule Deer

The mule deer, Odocoileus hemionus californicus, is the principle food source for the cougar. It is a large ungulate that utilizes and modifies several different plant communities, especially early successional vegetation following fire. The most common home range habitat types for female mule deer are coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and mixed coastal sage scrub. Coastal sage grassland and coastal sage scrub are the most common in male home ranges. Open oak woodlands near water support the highest densities in Camp Pendleton, where mule deer tend to avoid dense chaparral or scrub but will use steep topography if vegetation is not dense. They require dense thickets for escape and thermal cover.

Mule deer feed on a wide range of forage types. Pious (1989) reported a diet of 55% browse, 22% forbs, 10% grasses, 7% nuts, and 8% other materials from rumen samples of Camp Pendleton deer. Interspersed grasslands with abundant forbes are important sites for grazing. Researchers for Environmental Sciences Associates (1992) found the mean distance to water in a mule deer's home range to be around 800m.

Fawning areas contain low shrubs or small trees, forage areas, hiding cover and thermal cover (Thomas, 1979). Home range sizes vary with varying environmental and climatic conditions. The mean home range size reported by Environmental Sciences Associates (1992) was about 1km2 for females and about 3km2 for males.

Because of the adaptability of deer to rural residential development, there will be little change in their area of potential habitat as a result of Plans Build-Out, as seen in figures 79 and 80. The major decline, about 5% of the regional total, will be in the more intensely urbanized parts of the Temecula Valley. Population density within the remaining habitat may decline due to reduced habitat quality and fragmentation.