White-tailed deer capture records

The resource rule hypothesis predicts that geographic differences in body size among populations of organisms are due to the amount, availability, and quality of food resources. For instance, body size of large herbivores is often correlated with soil characteristics because better soils produce better forage. In semi-arid environments, rainfall variation is an important driver of forage availability, especially highly nutritious annual forbs. Thus, in such pulsed-resource environments, it is unclear whether body size of large herbivores is influenced by fixed resources correlated with soil characteristics, irregular resource pulses correlated with rainfall, or both. Furthermore, it is not clear if phenotypic expression is a function of forage quality or quantity. During early autumns of 2011–2018, we captured 4,554 white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) on 7 rangeland sites in the semiarid climate of South Texas, USA. The sites range from coastal to 140 km inland and represent grad..., Helicopter based net-gunning of white-tailed deer to collect morphometric measurements., , # WTDmorph

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8931zcrzq](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8931zcrzq)

Records of white-tailed deer captured across 7 sites in South Texas during 2011-2018 to quantify environmental effects on phenotype size.

## Description of the data and file structure

Analysis: corresponds with the Value column. Antler is Gross Boone and Crockett score (cm). Body and leg length (sex specific) is body and hind leg length (cm). Body mass (sex specific) is body mass in kg.

Year – year of capture (2011-2018)

Site – capture site. BV = Buena Vista, SR = Santa Rosa, ES = El Sauz, SAV-N = San Antonio Vijeo – North, SAV- S = San Antonio Viejo – South, SAV-E = San Antonio Viejo East, SAV-W = San Antonio Viejo West.

Age – estimated age based on tooth replacement and wear. Ranges from 0.5 to ≥6.5

Value – see Analysis description.

Lactation status (yes/no/na) – teats showing evidence of lactation

MarMayCM – total rainfall from Mar to May of given year for a given site (cm). Source...