After reading an article (31 pages) by Thomas E. Almendinger, he believes that most of the white-tail deer population was "taken out" by harsh winters, wolves, mountain lions, and the several million indigenous people that used deer for sustenance. The second stage of white-tail deer loss was when European settlers arrived. Large-scale forest clearing by the logging industry caused drastic habitat alterations driving wildlife away from civilized areas. The numbers were slightly different but for the most part, was in the vicinity of what the essay stated.
I've got to be honest, I didn't find much from Kent library. There were some articles on white-tail deer habitat, but as far as the 1700's to early 1900's, I didn't find very useful information. It could be me, not ruling that out.
I'd have to say that the article by Thomas E. Almendinger, was more useful. I'm not saying that it is all true, because let's be honest, you can't believe everything you see on the internet. It seemed to be pretty in depth on the history of white-tail deer. Thomas E. Almendinger is the Senior Ecologist at Rutgers University-School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, needless to say I half-way trust his article.
Ok, as a fellow country boy I had to say this. White tail deer (hunting) Thomas E. Almendinger (A.J. Almendinger Nascar). Jeff Foxworthy has a nice commentary on this, but I will keep this academic. I both watch Nascar and hunt.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to your research. I think with Kent Library you have to be a little more refined with your research. I believe you have UI100 and we just covered Kent Library . Are you looking at White tail numbers in all of the US or just a certain area? Also another avenue would be to research the "Dust bowl Era" of the early 1900's. Due to record drought and the inability of people to grow crops they hunted just about anything to survive. That included white tail deer. Due to this and that time frame for people to feed their family an insurmountable number of animals were killed. On kent library I would research MO conservation or research their site. If you live close enough to an office, I would also suggest going in for a quick "interview". It is my experience they get super excited when someone comes in asking to be educated on something about conservation. And then you can research "Dust bowl" and see what you come up with.
Tyler, I agree with Ronnie's advice. You usually have to be pretty specific in your search terms. Something like "deer" "population" "history" "North America" would make a good set of key words for your search. And if that doesn't work, you can try different key words. Keep up the hard work!
ReplyDeleteTyler, it looks like you are already getting some good ideas on how to do searches for your topic. I had similar questions to yours since I did part of mine on the internet. You found an article and it had what appeared to be credible information and now you are not sure? Understandable. Let's take a look at what you said about the author, "Thomas E. Almendinger is the Senior Ecologist at Rutgers University-School of Environmental and Biological Sciences". This displays about as much Ethos as I can think of. One can take his advice as being true simply based on the fact that he has credibility on the subject due to his job. That'd be my take on trusting your source.
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