Deer are adaptable herbivores that forage selectively for easily digestible, nutrient-dense foods. While they spend much of the year browsing on leaves, twigs, and forbs, fruit represents a highly desirable, seasonal food source. When fruits become available, deer prioritize them for their rich energy content, often seeking them out over other available vegetation.
The Most Preferred Fruits
Deer exhibit a strong preference for fleshy fruits, known as soft mast, and will travel to find a reliable supply. Among orchard fruits, apples are the most sought-after treat due to their high sugar content. Deer consume both fruit hanging on the tree and windfalls on the ground, often consuming them quickly once they drop. Pears are similarly desirable, providing a sweet, energy-rich food source often available later in the fall.
In Southern regions, the American persimmon is a major draw, as its fruit ripens late in the season, providing a carbohydrate-packed meal when other food sources are dwindling. Deer will return repeatedly to persimmon trees until all the fallen fruit is gone. Wild berries, particularly blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries, are also heavily consumed. Grapes, whether wild or cultivated, are another common favorite, especially as they begin to ferment slightly on the vine or ground.
Nutritional Value and Seasonal Importance
The biological reason deer are so drawn to fruit is its composition of simple carbohydrates and sugars, which provide a burst of digestible energy. High-energy foods like fruit are digested quickly, helping the deer meet their high metabolic needs efficiently.
The peak importance of fruit occurs in the late summer and fall, coinciding with two critical biological processes. Does need to replenish their body condition after weaning their fawns and prepare for the breeding season. All deer must also build up fat reserves before the rut and the harshness of winter, when food becomes scarce. This stored body fat serves as an energy source for bucks during the rut and for all deer to survive the winter.
Managing Deer Interactions with Fruit
Attracting Deer
Landowners often adopt management strategies focused on either attracting deer to fruit or protecting fruit from them. For those interested in wildlife viewing or hunting, setting out preferred fruits, such as apples, can be an effective way to draw deer into a specific area. Planting specialized, high-yield fruit trees that drop their mast during the hunting season is a common tactic used to hold deer on a property.
Protecting Fruit
Protecting valuable fruit trees and gardens requires exclusion methods, as deer will readily browse on the buds and tender growth in the spring and eat the fruit as it ripens. High fences, ideally seven to eight feet tall, offer the most reliable long-term solution against deer damage. Electric fences can also be effective, conditioning them to avoid the area.
Short-term deterrents include odor or taste-based repellents, such as those containing rotten eggs, or hanging bars of strong-smelling soap from branches. When actively feeding deer, remember that their specialized digestive systems can be harmed by processed foods or large amounts of corn. Providing natural, high-energy foods like fruit is generally safer, but exclusion is the only way to guarantee a harvest for human consumption.