Author
Robbins, C. T.Issue Date
1987-11-01Keywords
British Columbialichens
digestibility trials
dietary fiber
nitrogen
crude protein
Odocoileus hemionus
nutritive value
forage
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Robbins, C. T. (1987). Digestibility of an arboreal lichen by mule deer. Journal of Range Management, 40(6), 491-492.Publisher
Society for Range ManagementJournal
Journal of Range ManagementDOI
10.2307/3898866Additional Links
https://rangelands.org/Abstract
Arboreal lichens are commonly consumed by wintering cervids in temperate forests, but their nutritional value is poorly understood. The digestibility of an arboreal lichen (Alectoria sarmentosa) fed with alfalfa pellets to mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) was estimated. The lichen contained 2% crude protein, 13.4% neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and 0.9% acid detergent fiber (ADF). Apparent digestibilities were very high for lichen dry matter (85.2%), NDF (91.9%), and cell solubles (84.2%). The apparent digestibility of protein was very low (-218.0%) and reflects the impossibility of balancing MFN losses with a forage containing such minimal nitrogen. This lichen can be an important source of energy to wintering cervids.Type
textArticle
Language
enISSN
0022-409Xae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.2307/3898866