New Hampshire bobcat 



wildlife and plant communities by 

 creating browse for white-tailed deer 

 and other wildlife species, especially 

 under power lines. 



The size of the deer herd in the 

 Granite State is coupled to the severity 

 of winter weather, deer kill in a given 

 season, and changes in habitat. But to 

 wildlife physiologist W. W. Mautz 

 knowledge of the efficiency with which 

 an animal uses its natural foods, its 

 requirements, and its food supply are 

 crucial determinants of the number of 

 animals a given area can support. He 

 believes that food evaluation studies 

 should play an important role in wild- 

 life management decisions. Mautz uses 

 telemetry on free roaming deer to pro- 

 vide an indirect measure of energy 

 expenditure. In other research he found 

 that stored fat is a major factor in win- 

 ter survival of white-tailed deer and 

 that acorns are an important and nutri- 

 tious fall food for deer and help build 



reserve fat which reduces mortality in 

 late winter. He conducts research with 

 other animal species — the snowshoe 

 hare, bobcat, fisher and beaver, among 

 others. Funding for the research is 

 provided by the N.H. Fish and Game 

 Department, the Station, and the 

 Mclntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry 

 Program. 



Wildlife ecologist J. A. Litvaitis 

 has done research with the coyote, 

 bobcat and lynx. Recently he found an 

 association among bobcat age, sex and 

 weight and the prey eaten by them in 

 winter, and determined bobcat habitat 

 use to be influenced by snowshoe hare 

 distribution. In New Hampshire, al- 

 though lynx are considered rare and 

 are an endangered species, appropri- 

 ate habitat is available. 



Plant Science 



During the tenure of A. F. Yeager and 

 E. L. Meader the major research em- 



74 



