“Humans have no choice but to manage deer because we’ve eliminated natural predators,” Miller said. “Too many deer can negatively impact many other wildlife species and cause irreparable damage to the ecology of an area.”

But in some deer species, the problem is reversed. Eld’s deer, for example, is an endangered sub-tropical species that ranges from eastern India to China. Miller, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution’s Conservation Reserve Center, investigated the possibility that male-related odors could improve female conception rates. For one group of does, straw that had been sprayed with male urine was suspended in the stall; for another group, the straw was sprayed with water. The team found that does exposed to buck urine had higher levels of reproductive hormones and higher conception rates than does exposed to water. The findings suggest that simply the smell of a male’s urine conveys his reproductive condition and that could increase conception rates in does.

“This scent-marking mechanism of the buck could minimize the energy expended in finding and defending mates and might enable the doe to conceive early in the reproductive season when environmental conditions optimize offspring survival,” Miller said.

The tremendous complexity of deer natural history creates a huge challenge for effectively managing the species.

“Deer are highly complex,” Miller said. “But with each new discovery it becomes clearer that deer live in a world of scents, sounds and sights that is very different than how we perceive our world.”

For more information, contact Karl Miller at kmiller@smokey.forestry.uga.edu or access www.forestry.uga.edu/h/research.

Rory Sheats is a former intern in the UGA Research Communications Office.

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