Whitetails: Behavior, Ecology, Conservation. - book reviews

American Forests, July-August, 1994 by Carl Reidel

In many ways this book took a lifetime to produce. Authors Erwin and Peggy Bauer have included 120 full-color photos taken over 50 years of hunting deer with a camera. They show whitetails in a wide range of habitats from swamp and semi-desert to farms and woodlands. Photographs from Venezuela to northern Canada and at least 20 U.S. states depict several of the 30 different subspecies of whitetails (Odocoileus virginianus). The photos are stunning, in both subject matter and composition, and are magnificently reproduced.

But this is more than a coffee-table picture book. It includes a lively, well-written text by Erwin Bauer, with opening chapters on the evolution, distribution, life history, and behavior of whitetails. He tells the fascinating story of these tough, resilient creatures--"super survivors" that have adapted to human impacts on their native environments. This deer, with a population of over 20 million, is the most abundant of New World large mammals.

The chapter titled "Antlers" (same title as a new book by the Bauers, soon to be released) is especially intriguing, with a lively narrative and a remarkable set of photographs of live deer with magnificent racks. "Wildlife of the Whitetail's World" puts deer in ecological context by explaining their intricate relationships with the physical environment and other creatures, especially predators. He puts to rest many of the myths about predators that were used in the past to exterminate wolves, cougars, and coyotes, and describes the serious impacts of environmental degradation of deer.

"This much is certain," he writes. "The whitetail lives on some of the most beautiful, most accessible landscapes of our country, another reason we should stubbornly protect our precious natural environment everywhere at any cost."

In the final chapter, "Conservation and the Future," Bauer clearly explains the principle of "biological carrying capacity" and touches on many environmental problems impacting whitetails. But I was a bit disappointed that he did not stress some of the more controversial issues limiting the ability of wildlife biologists to enhance deer populations and habitats. For example, the growing anti-hunting movement, legislative meddling in such crucial management decisions as the setling of doe-hunting seasons, and inadequate funding for wildlife agencies are serious threats to the future of whitetails. Bauer also missed an opportunity in the brief "References and Suggested Readings" to introduce readers to some important wildlife-management books, such as Aldo Leopold's classic text.

But this is not a college textbook. It is, in the best sense of the world, an amateur's textbook--a "lover's" textbook. It will charm and inform the most ardent deer watcher, hunter, or lover.