New York Sportsmen
Hunting- In The New York Area => New York Big Game Hunting => Topic started by: Yotehntr on November 26, 2020, 03:13:25 PM
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So my buddy killed a nice buck in an area with a lot of laurel. After dressing it, we opened up the stomach contents, to see what he was eating and found some browse and a good amount of laurel. Some of leaves were still intact enough to identify. I always thought deer ignored laurel as a food source, any thoughts?
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I’ve always known mnt laurel as “starvation food”, a last resort when needed.
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I was always under the same impression. I actually couldn’t believe it at first, since I never really came across that much sign of it being browsed. No acorns left, in the areas we’ve been hunting, so manymaybe not much to eat.
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Horrible acorn year in my hunting area. Last years crop was unreal. Reds are often biennial
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Update on post - did more research and looks like it’s tea berry, that they’re eating. Leaves look a lot like laurel
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Here’s pic
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Update on post - did more research and looks like it’s tea berry, that they’re eating. Leaves look a lot like laurel
That makes sense, I wish they would eat that damm laurel,LOL it’s impenetrable in certain areas.Good job figuring that out Matt, very good to know what they are eating when there are no nuts.
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I remembered this post today while field dressing and I checked the stomach of the buck and looked like the same leaves. I noticed the tea berry around too before we shot him and pointed out to my wife and referenced this post. Not the best pic but it was mostly leaves
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That’s interesting. Something to keep a look out for, when the acorns are scarce.
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It also looks like that deer was eating moss and lichen.