Home range sizes of red deer in contrasting landscapes and implications for management
Data files
May 03, 2022 version files 33.99 KB
-
Home_range_size.txt
33.64 KB
-
README.txt
355 B
Abstract
Knowledge about deer spatial use is essential for damage mitigation and management coordination. Here we assess annual and seasonal home range sizes for red deer in Sweden, based on data from GPS-marked deer in two regions with different management systems and contrasting landscapes. We compare our findings with reviewed data on European red deer (Cervus elaphus) home range sizes in Europe. We found that female annual home ranges (95% kernels) were 2.7 times larger in a mixed agricultural-forest landscape compared to a forest-dominated landscape. Core areas (50% kernels) were approximately 1/5 of the full annual home ranges (90% kernels) regardless of region. Home range size in the forest landscape showed little inter-seasonal variation whereas in the agricultural-forest landscape, home ranges were significantly larger during calving, hunt, and winter-spring compared to summer and rut. In the forest landscape, females had home range sizes that enables single red deer management areas to manage their own females. Whereas, within the agricultural-forest landscape, female spatial use cover several license units. Here, the coordinated license system is needed to reach trade-offs between goals of conservation, game management, and damage mitigation. Males had in general larger home ranges than females. The majority of the males made a seasonal migration to and from the rutting areas. The license system in the agricultural-forest landscape is large enough to manage migrating males, but in the forest landscape a coordination of several deer management areas is needed in order to encompass male spatial use.
- Jarnemo, Anders; Nilsson, Lovisa; Wikenros, Camilla (2023). Home range sizes of red deer in relation to habitat composition: a review and implications for management in Sweden. European Journal of Wildlife Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-023-01719-6
