User talk:Rachelsmiley

Welcome!
Hello, Rachelsmiley, and welcome to Wikipedia! My name is Ian and I work with the Wiki Education Foundation; I help support students who are editing as part of a class assignment.

I hope you enjoy editing here. If you haven't already done so, please check out the student training library, which introduces you to editing and Wikipedia's core principles. You may also want to check out the Teahouse, a community of Wikipedia editors dedicated to helping new users. Below are some resources to help you get started editing. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on my talk page. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:52, 22 March 2016 (UTC)

Mule deer are Ruminants, meaning they employ a nutrient acquisition strategy of fermenting plant material before digesting it.

4. Many subspecies of mule deer are migratory, and encounter variable habitats and forage quality throughout the season. Forages consumed in the summer are higher in digestible components (i.e. proteins, starches, sugars, and hemicellulose) than those consumed in the winter. The average gross energy content of the consumed forage material is 4.5 kcal/g. Due to fluctuations in forage quality and availability, mule deer fat storage varies throughout the year, with the most fat stored in October, which is depleted throughout the winter to the lowest levels of fat storage in March.

When consuming high fiber, low starch diets require less food than those consuming high starch, low fiber diets and increased rumination time which allows for increased nutrient acquisition due to greater length of fermentation. Total body fat is a measure of the individual’s energy reserves while thyroid hormone concentrations are a metric to determine the deer’s ability to utilize the fat reserves. Triiodothryionine (T3) hormone is directly involved with basal metabolic rate and thermoregulation. Changes in hormone levels are indications of physiological adjustments to the changes in the habitat.

Physiological Ecology of Animals

The article on mule deer gives a good overview of identifying physical characteristics, taxonomy, diet, and behavior. While diet is extensively reported, the article could be much more detailed about physiology, and particularly nutrition. The article goes into great detail about exactly what mule deer eat, but does not go any further into acquisition, quality, energy requirements, or seasonality of the diet. The article also only mentions once migratory behavior of mule deer, which could be greatly expanded upon. I also think that more information about life history could be added.

Physiological Ecology or Animals- Mule Deer
The article on mule deer gives a good overview of identifying physical characteristics, taxonomy, diet, and behavior. While diet is extensively reported, the article could be much more detailed about physiology, and particularly nutrition. The article goes into great detail about exactly what mule deer eat, but does not go any further into acquisition, quality, energy requirements, or seasonality of the diet. The article also only mentions once migratory behavior of mule deer, which could be greatly expanded upon. I also think that more information about life history could be added.

Mule Deer
Mule deer are Ruminants, meaning they employ a nutrient acquisition strategy of fermenting plant material before digesting it. Deer consuming high-fiber, low-starch diets require less food than those consuming high-starch, low-fiber diets. Rumination time also increases when deer consume high-fiber, low-starch diets which allows for increased nutrient acquisition due to greater length of fermentation. Because some of the subspecies of mule deer are migratory, they encounter variable habitats and forage quality throughout the year (deCalesta). Forages consumed in the summer are higher in digestible components (i.e. proteins, starches, sugars, and hemicellulose) than those consumed in the winter. The average gross energy content of the consumed forage material is 4.5 kcal/g (Wallmo). Due to fluctuations in forage quality and availability, mule deer fat storage varies throughout the year, with the most fat stored in October, which is depleted throughout the winter to the lowest levels of fat storage in March (Bergman). Changes in hormone levels are indications of physiological adjustments to the changes in the habitat(Wallmo). Total body fat is a measure of the individual’s energy reserves while thyroid hormone concentrations are a metric to determine the deer’s ability to utilize the fat reserves. Triiodothryionine (T3) hormone is directly involved with basal metabolic rate and thermoregulation.

Mccusker, S. (2011). "Effects of starch and fibre in pelleted diets on nutritional status of mule deer (odocoileus hemionus) fawns". Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition. Bergman, E (2014). "Herbivore body condition response in altered environments: Mule deer and habitat management". PLoS ONE. deCalesta, David S.; Nagy, Julius G.; Bailey, James A. (1975-01-01). "Starving and Refeeding Mule Deer". The Journal of Wildlife Management 39 (4): 663–669.doi:10.2307/3800224. Wallmo, O. C.; Carpenter, L. H.; Regelin, W. L.; Gill, R. B.; Baker, D. L. (1977-01-01). "Evaluation of Deer Habitat on a Nutritional Basis". Journal of Range Management 30 (2): 122–127. doi:10.2307/3897753.

@Rachelsmiley: Rachel, thanks for adding comments to Emilee's draft contribution on caribou. I notice that you didn't sign it using the Wiki standard signature of 4 '~'s, but something called a 'sinebot' added the information on who signed when! Rico.schultz (talk) 16:23, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

@Rachelsmiley: Rachel, I see that you posted to the Mule deer talk page. No feedback yet but I have asked Ian if he will take a look at these or if there is anything more we should do. Rico.schultz (talk) 17:58, 3 May 2016 (UTC)

Moved page
Hi Rachel. I have moved the page Talk:Rachelsmiley/talk to User:Rachelsmiley/sandbox2, since it had been moved to the wrong namespace. If you no longer need this draft, just put the code  at the top of the page and an administrator will delete it for you. Yunshui 雲 水 14:01, 16 January 2017 (UTC)