Density-dependent space use of roe deer
Abstract
Findings to date on the roe deer project in Greith suggest that interindividual differences in space use play a major role. Some bucks and does tolerated their neighbors in the now partly shared territorial sections, others avoided their same-sex conspecifics regardless of density. Deer in Greith apparently coped very well with smaller territories due to unlimited resources. A further increase in density should be avoided because of the then expected higher risk of disease transmission. We assume that the territory sizes will not go down even further, but that the overlaps will increase, in which those individuals are favored that do not use their resources primarily for defending the territories, but put them into attracting mating partners and reproduction. Younger bucks show more flexibility in their use of space, possibly because they have to (old bucks defend their territories) or because they already forgo the costly defense of a territory. Therefore, we hypothesize the following for the future: - With continued high density and unlimited food resources, territories will remain small and overlap will increase. - As a consequence, territories will only be detectable in winter (around feeding times) and in early summer (when fawns are born). - In the long term, the deer in the Greith research gate will give up their territoriality in favor of a more resource-efficient space utilization behavior and will organize their foraging areas flexibly in the habitat and over the seasons. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
keywords roe deer space use telemetry intraspecific competition territoriality
Publikationen
Project staff
Klaus Hackländer
Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Biol. Dr.rer.nat. Klaus Hackländer
klaus.hacklaender@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-83211
Project Leader
01.10.2022 - 30.09.2032