Overview
The Carmen Mountain white-tailed deer is small in size with antlers that form small baskets, with the main beam curving tightly inward. It is the smallest of the White-tailed sub-species in Texas and may be the smallest of the mainland United States.
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammal
- Order
- Artiodactyla
- Family
- Cervidae
- Genus
- Odocoileus
- Species
- Odocoileus virginianus
Habitat
The primary habitat of the Carmen sub-species is the pinyon-juniper oak associations, which generally start at 4,500 feet in elevation and go up from there. Distribution- The Carmen Mountain White-tailed Deer occur in southern Brewster County and western Presidio County, Texas. These are mountainous deer not found below 4,500 feet in elevation. Mountain ranges in which Carmen deer are found include: the Sierra Vieja, Chinati, Del Norte, Rosillas, Christmas and the Chisos in Texas. In Mexico they are found in the Sierra del Carmen and the Sierra del Burros ranges.
Diet
Primarily browses and also supplements this diet with desert forbs and grasses.
Behavior
Antler growth happens April-September. Rut is late November thru February, with the peak in January. The fawning season is July, with the gestation being 201 days. Predation is mainly the mountain lion with a 68% of known mortalities. Of 190 bedding sites examined, 63% were in washes with dense vegetation such as oak, pinyon pine, juniper, mountain mahogany, sumac, ash, Texas persimmon, and desert willow. The Carmen deer tend to bed on areas with a slope of 1 to 20 degrees. Only 5% of the beds were found on flat ground. Bedding sites are distributed almost equally between the north, east and west exposures. The south exposures are avoided because they were drier and contained less cover.
Hunting
Where populations are high enough to be hunted, and the land is not protected, these animals are hunted as other desert Whitetails are, with spot and stalk methods.
Conservation Status
Listed as Least Concern by IUCN.