The
black-tailed deer, Odocoileus hemionus columbianus, is a
Northwestern subspecies of the larger mule deer of the American
West.
Black-tailed
deer are browsers focusing their culinary attention on leaves as
well as grasses, poison oak, acorns, wild fruits and nuts, small
grains, and … your fruit trees and gardens! The deer thrive
on the edges of forests, where they can find the shrubs they prefer
to eat while also finding places to hide from predators.
Like other species of deer, the black-tails are ungulates (hoofed
animals) and ruminants or cud-chewers with a four-chambered
stomach; the parts called the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and
abomasum in which food is separated, formed into a cud,
regurgitated, broken down by various microbes, fermented, absorbed
and digested.
Imagine … fermented poison oak …
Our black-tailed deer face many dangers in their lives: they are
preyed upon by mountain lions, coyotes and domestic dogs; and they
frequently become road kill while migrating or trying to reach food
and water.
Between 1850 and 1910, the black-tailed deer population reached an
all-time low in California dropping to less than 300,000 animals.
With government regulation, deer populations gradually rose until
the 1950s but have since plummeted 46% in response to habitat
fragmentation, degradation, and destruction caused by urban
expansion.
The Santa Cruz Public Works Department is responsible for deciding
where deer crossing signs are placed. Complaints about deer being
killed on the roads are put on a list to be investigated. If the
county crew who pick up the kill, notices there is an inordinate
amount of dead deer in an area, a sign will be placed next to the
road.
Close by the cache you can see the old railroad trestle of the
Suntan Special GC2NVGG crossing Zayante Creek.