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In order for hunters, like University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agent Keith Fielder, to land deer like this nine-point buck, Georgia's deer population needs proper nutrition. A variety of foods are essential to a healthy herd. Much like humans, deer need proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and water. CAES News
Whitetail Nutrition
While deer can survive for a relatively long period of time on little to no food, the effects of a nutritional deficiency can be seen for up to two years after the deficiency. This often results in decreased body weights, decreased birth weights and decreased antler mass across the population.
Through the "Trees for Bees" project, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agents are teaching children and adults how to create pollinator habitats. To promote a diverse pollinator habitat, plant pollinator-friendly plants, provide nesting boxes for cavity-nesting bees, leave spots of bare ground for ground-nesting bees and allow winter weeds to bloom to increase floral resources. CAES News
Pollinator Habitats
Pollinators are essential to the production of native plants and food crops. To help pollinators like bees and butterflies do their jobs of moving pollen, home gardeners can provide a habitat that provides water and shelter.
A deer in its second year, a yearling, is caught by the lens of a wildlife camera. His small rack of antlers has grown over the past year. Antlers have the fastest growing tissue known to man. With the right nutrition, a buck can grow an excess of 200 inches of bone on his head in a matter of 120 days. CAES News
Deer Rut
Once again, it is that time of year when bucks start chasing does, and deer hunters hit the woods. You guessed it: It is time for the rut, or breeding, season. But the question to be answered is, “How do biologists predict when the rut is going to be?”
Though the leaves haven't fallen, this Finch Gold possumhaw holly is already showing out with branches filled with golden berries. CAES News
Golden Berry
This time of the year, everyone is thinking of decking the halls with hollies and their colorful red berries, but you just may want to consider adding a touch of gold. Can you even imagine hollies with bright golden berries? These would show out in the landscape like small trees or shrubs adorned with a thousand little golden lights — and the same for the mantel! My preference, however, would be to see birds celebrating with a Christmas feast.
Deer are beautiful creatures, but seeing them dining on your landscape plants quickly makes their beauty fade. CAES News
Deer Habitat
While there is no hard-and-fast method to determining the exact number of deer in a county or state, current population estimates are coming in at just over 1 million animals. Ultimately, the habitat quality in a particular area limits the number of deer hunters may see.
David Weber and Jillian Norrie, environmental educators at Burton 4-H Center, carry a sea turtle back to the ocean as a host of local Tybee Island residents and tourists look on. The turtle, named Zoe by the center's staff, quickly swam out of sight. CAES News
Turtle Release
Zoe, a loggerhead sea turtle that lived at the Burton 4-H Center on Tybee Island, Georgia, for the past five years, was released on the island Saturday, Sept. 30. A large crowd of local residents and tourists gathered with cameras ready as Zoe was lowered into the water just south of the pier on Tybee Beach, where the sea turtle hatched.
Lavendar Harris, 16-year-old Georgia 4-H'er and a volunteer at Bear Hollow Zoo in Athens-Clarke County, compiled a coloring book to serve as a fundraiser for the zoo. Harris is a home-schooled student and Newton County, Georgia, 4-H Club member. The coloring book is the keystone of her Georgia 4-H Leadership in Action project. CAES News
Working for Wildlife
What has 16 paws, eight hooves and three beaks? The answer can be found at Athens, Georgia’s Bear Hollow Zoo, and it’s not a fantastic beast. It’s a coloring book featuring some of the zoo’s most notable residents.
As the cup plant grows, it develops large, square stems that give the impression they are piercing the center of the large leaves. There are actually two leaves without petioles that are attached to the stem, forming a perfect cup with which to collect rainwater for bees and birds. CAES News
Cup Plant
When it comes to backyard wildlife, the cup plant does it all. To me, it is like the flag-bearing perennial for bees, butterflies and birds. It is a stalwart and is native in 34 states, from Louisiana, north to Canada and sweeping across all states east. Its size makes it seem like it is the composite, or aster, that ate New York. It is big, bold and wonderful, and this is the time of the year it shines the most.
Planting a variety of plants, or the same plant at different times, extends the usefulness of a dove field and provides diversity for the doves' diet. This sunflower field on the University of Georgia's Westbrook Farm in Griffin, Georgia, is ready for dove season. CAES News
Dove Season Prep
Opening day of dove season is a little over two months away, so it’s time to start planning for and planting dove fields. A prudently planned dove field can provide family entertainment and economic benefits through most of the dove season, which starts Sept. 2.