# Winter Bed-Site Selection by White-Tailed Deer in Central Ontario

> Where does a deer sleep on a bitter winter night, and where do they rest on a sunny afternoon? By backtracking fresh trails in the snow of central Ontario to 423 beds, researchers found that night beds sit deep under hemlock and other conifers, while day beds lie out in the open, sunny hardwoods on south- and west-facing slopes. Overhead cover and conifers alone told the two apart 94% of the time.

Summary by Kersey Lawrence, Original Wisdom. Updated 9 November 2026. Page: https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/1983-armstrong-euler-winter-bed-site-selection/

## Citation and access

- **Authors:** Edward Armstrong, David Euler and Gerald Racey
- **Year published:** 1983
- **Journal or source:** The Journal of Wildlife Management
- **Full citation:** Armstrong, E., Euler, D. and Racey, G. 1983. Winter bed-site selection by white-tailed deer in central Ontario. The Journal of Wildlife Management 47(3): 880-884.
- **DOI:** 10.2307/3808632
- **Access status:** Publisher link only
- **Where to find it:** https://doi.org/10.2307/3808632

## Tags

- **Species:** Mammals > White-tailed deer
- **Region:** North America > Canada
- **Tracking:** Beds; Feeding signs; Snow tracks; Tracking; Tracks and signs identification; Trailing
- **Behaviour and ecology:** Behaviour; Feeding; Habitat selection; Site fidelity
- **Methods and technology:** Chi-square test
- **Data type:** New field data
- **Observer qualification:** Not reported
- **Discipline:** Behaviour and ecology; Wildlife tracking
- **Year published:** 1983

## Detailed keywords

- **Species:** Studied: white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Trees around the beds: sugar maple (Acer saccharum), northern red oak (Quercus rubra), white oak (Quercus alba), yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis), Canada hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), white pine (Pinus strobus) and northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis).
- **Location and habitat:** Two winter deer concentration areas in central Ontario, Canada: Lake Muskoka in the Regional Municipality of Muskoka (45°02’N, 79°30’W) and Percy-Haliburton Lakes in Haliburton County (45°13’N, 78°22’W), with some fieldwork near Walker Lake in Muskoka. Coniferous shorelines and coniferous ridges separated by deciduous forest, linked by small lakes and coniferous swamps.
- **Topics:** winter bed-site selection; day beds versus night beds; deer wintering areas (deer yards); thermal cover and energy conservation; overhead cover; conifer composition; slope aspect and sun exposure; snow depth; bed group size; browsing at bed sites; reuse of bed sites across winters; travel lanes; habitat management of critical winter habitat.
- **Statistics or models:** Principal components analysis (PCA); discriminant function analysis (DFA), with 94.3% of sites correctly classified from overhead cover and conifer composition; chi-square test (browsing versus bed type); means and standard deviations. Habitat measured with the point-quarter technique (nearest 4 trees). Inconsistencies to note: (1) the Discussion says “night beds were located on north-facing slopes”, but the Results give 42% on north-facing and 29% on south-facing slopes; (2) the Discussion says day beds were not used as consistently or for as long as night beds, and the Results say several night-bed sites were reused across winters, but no numbers are given for either (“quantitative data were not recorded”); (3) browsing at 84 of 326 night beds is reported as 25.7% (84/326 works out to 25.8%), a rounding difference only.
- **Data type:** New field data: 27 January to 10 March 1978 and 8 January to 9 March 1979. 326 night beds and 97 day beds. Snow depth, vegetation volume and direction to the nearest tree were recorded in 1979 only.

## Synopsis

### 1. What they did

In northern parts of their range, white-tailed deer gather in winter concentration areas. Earlier studies showed that deer usually bed at night in closed forest near conifers and bed by day in sunny spots. Both kinds of bed site seem to be needed, so the authors set out to describe what makes a good day bed and a good night bed, to help managers recognize and look after critical winter habitat.

They worked in two winter concentration areas in central Ontario, Canada, in the winters of 1978 and 1979:

- Finding night beds. In the early morning after a cold, windy night (at least -10 °C with some wind), they backtracked fresh deer tracks to the beds and used signs in relation to the snow to judge how fresh they were.

- Finding day beds. They found day beds the same way, on sunny, mild days in mid- to late winter.

- Measuring each site. Conifer share of the nearest 4 trees, tree species and size, distance to the nearest tree and to the nearest live and dead branches, depth of the bed, slope aspect and position on the slope, overhead cover, signs of recent browsing, and the number of beds and fresh beds in each group. In 1979 they also measured snow depth and vegetation volume.

- Comparing them. They used two statistical methods to find which habitat features varied most and which best separated day beds from night beds.

### 2. What they found

Night beds versus day beds

- They measured 326 night beds and 97 day beds.

- 90% of night beds were near conifers, especially Canada hemlock. 91% of day beds were near deciduous trees, mainly sugar maple, white oak and northern red oak.

- Overhead cover averaged 85% at night beds and 13% at day beds; conifers made up 76% and 11% of the nearest trees.

- Night beds were closer to trees: 66% were within 1 m of the nearest tree, against 31% of day beds. Night beds were also closer to dead branches and next to larger trees.

- Night beds were deeper (22 cm against 19 cm), while snow around day beds was much deeper (76 cm against 36 cm, 1979 only).

- Most day beds were on south-facing (55%) or west-facing (27%) slopes. Night beds were mostly on north-facing (42%) or south-facing (29%) slopes. Most beds of both kinds were high up on slopes.

- Active beds per group averaged 3.1 by day and 2.7 at night.

Telling them apart

- Overhead cover and conifer composition alone sorted 94.3% of the 423 sites correctly into day or night beds.

- The habitat differences fell along three main lines: the amount of overhead cover and conifers, the size of and distance to nearby trees and branches, and compass direction and slope position.

Browsing and reuse

- Signs of browsing were found at 65% of day beds but only 26% of night beds.

- Several night-bed sites were used in both winters (not counted). No day beds were seen reused in a second winter.

### 3. What they concluded

- Night beds were similar to those in other studies: under dense, deep conifer canopy, near the trunk of a conifer and close to low branches. This combination cuts wind and heat loss and so conserves energy. Less snow under the canopy also makes travel easier.

- Repeated use of night-bed sites, sometimes over successive winters, suggests deer select specific sites.

- Open, south- and west-facing day beds high on slopes let deer warm up in the sun, reducing energy use in late winter, a critical time. Getting both kinds of bed site right should help survival and the number of young raised.

- Deep snow at day-bed sites means day-bedding areas need to be next to travel lanes kept under dense cover. Deer reached some day beds further from cover along crusted snow, snowmobile trails and roads, and in undisturbed places also bedded by day on the sheltered side of islands and the mainland.

- In central Ontario, conifer-covered ridges provided both travel lanes and night beds, and north-facing slopes, where much of the hemlock grew, were used for night beds. Aspect may matter less for night beds here than in Quebec, where deer avoided north-facing slopes.

- These wintering areas need both varied terrain and varied tree cover, and differ from the lowland conifer swamps used elsewhere. Both kinds of bed site should be considered when judging habitat, and management should aim to keep both present and well distributed.

### 4. How tracking was or was not used

Every bed in the study was found by tracking: the researchers backtracked fresh deer tracks in snow to the bed sites, and used signs in relation to snow accumulation to judge whether beds were fresh. At each site they counted beds and fresh (active) beds in the group, measured bed depth, and recorded signs of recent browsing.

### 5. Tracker or observer certification

Not reported. No tracker skill or experience is described, although finding and ageing the beds depended on reading tracks and signs in snow. M. Heimberger, D. Freele and M. Wilton are thanked for field assistance.

### 6. Other technologies, skills or innovations

- The point-quarter technique (nearest 4 trees) to describe tree cover around each bed.

- Principal components analysis (PCA) and discriminant function analysis (DFA), run with the BMDP biomedical computer programs.

- A 1 x 1 m plot for overhead cover, and a 6-point scale for position on the slope (1 for lowland to 6 for a hilltop plateau).

### 7. Implications for conservation (from the paper)

- Deer in central Ontario winter areas use both day and night beds, and management should try to keep both present, available and well distributed.

- Day-bedding areas need to be next to travel lanes under dense cover, because of deep snow in the open.

- Overhead cover and conifer composition are a simple way to recognize night-bedding habitat when assessing winter range.

### 8. Implications for tracking (Original Wisdom's observations)

_These are Original Wisdom's observations, not the authors'._

- The study shows how backtracking fresh trails in snow leads straight to the places animals choose to rest, giving a large sample of beds (423) for habitat measurement.

- For trackers reading deer beds in winter, the paper gives a clear picture of the two types: night beds deep and tucked against conifer trunks under heavy cover, and day beds shallower, in open sunny hardwoods on south- or west-facing slopes, often with browsing nearby.

## Cite this summary

Lawrence, K. 2026. Summary of: Winter Bed-Site Selection by White-Tailed Deer in Central Ontario (Armstrong and Euler et al., 1983). Original Wisdom, Tracking Literature. https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/1983-armstrong-euler-winter-bed-site-selection/