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Space Use and Activity Patterns of Red Deer in a Highly Forested and in a Patchy Forest-Agricultural Habitat

2009; De Gruyter Open; Volume: 5; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.37045/aslh-2009-0008

1787-064X

András Náhlik, Gyula Sándor, Tamás Tari, Géza Király,

Rangeland and Wildlife Management

Red deer (Cervus elaphus) were fitted with GPS collars to estimate their habitat use and feeding ethology. The purpose of the study was to find methods to reduce crop damage caused by deer. The collars were programmed to produce an hourly recording of position. Two different types of habitat were studied: a) An undisturbed and variable habitat (Zala County), b) A less variable area much disturbed by human activities (Sopron mountains). Comparisons were made between 1) the expansion of home range, 2) the intensity of open habitats use, and 3) the activity patterns of marked individuals in the two areas. The seasonal change of size of the home ranges showed similar dynamics in the two regions. The summer home range was always smaller than the autumn-winter ranges. In Zala County, the winter range often overlapped the summer range. In the Sopron mountain area, there was a definite home range shift. The summer home ranges in the Sopron area were examined using the 60 % Kernel method where differences were usually found between the day and night-time home areas. In the Zala region the phenomenon was not observed. The autumn-winter home range of stags is larger than that of hinds particularly in the summer. Examined with the minimum convex polygon method the difference is even larger than the results obtained from the Kernel method, which focuses on density distribution. This shows that the autumn-winter movements mostly represent rambling and only in a lesser, but still significant extent derive from the real extension of home ranges. Large differences existed at regional and individual levels regarding the use of the open habitats. The red deer in Zala used the open habitats in a more intensive way than those in Sopron. The daytime activity of the Sopron stags was less than that of the Zala stags.