Would a deer ever eat a gopher if it was hungry enough?

Question

If a deer was ever hungry enough, and had nothing else to eat, would it eat a gopher if it saw it running by it or atleast attempt to?

Answer 1

Cherry's answer is very good.  Basically I just wanted to add this...

To a deer, a gopher is not food.  It would be like you looking at a phone and thinking you could eat it.  

Example: If a deer is starving, and there is no grass, leaves, bark, branches, roots, (in otherwords, you dropped it in the desert) and the only thing it could see for miles and miles is a gopher, it would still look around in the sand to fine something edible.

Answer 2

No. Deer are herbivores - a deer would not see a gopher as food, however hungry it was. Even if it tried to eat it, a deer's teeth and digestive system are adapted for feeding on vegetation. It would have trouble chewing flesh, and would be unable to digest it if it managed it - it would only make itself ill.

Answer 3

i would hope not!

because that would just be rude!!

Answer 4

Why would a deer eat a hungry gopher?

Answer 5

Short Answer: No. Deer are herbivores.



The feeding habits and the food the deer eats vary from region to region.  Whitetail Deer are known to eat over 600 species of plants in North America.  What they eat is based on what is available to them on their home range and the nutrients they require.  Deer need to select a balanced diet from plants within their home range.  They consume on average, about 5 to 8 pounds of food for every 100 pounds of body weight, per day.  During the Spring and Summer months the deer have a vast assortment of leaves, twigs and low growing plants available to them.  They feed heavily at this time.  In the Fall many white tailed deer switch their diet to fallen mast crops such as acorns.  Winter brings about a more complex change to the world of the whitetail deer.  On good range does may continue to gain weight through December while the bucks are just trying to maintain their weight.   During January and February the quality and the quantity of food decreases but the deer adapt to these conditions by turning down their metabolism to conserve energy.