Alternative use of space strategies of female roe deer(Capreolus capreolus)in a mountainous habitat

Abstract

The spacing behaviour of ten roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) females was studied from March 1997 until February 1998 in the Casentinesi Forest National Park, Italy. The study area is mountainous with a high percentage of forest cover (95%). Mean temperature was 8° C and snowfall occurred in autumn and winter. Data were collected with radio-tracking techniques and annual, bimonthly and monthly home ranges were analysed. The results indicated two different spacing behaviours: stationary and roaming. Roaming females had larger home ranges than stationary ones. Only during the birth period, in May-June, were home ranges similar for both groups of females, while the winter period showed great differences. Habitat quality and social factors seemed to influence the ranging behaviour of females in this mountainous habitat in the course of the year.KEY WORDS: Capreolus capreolus -Use of space strategiesHome range -Radio-tracking -Forest habitat. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Use of space and habitat selection by roe deer Capreolus capreolus in a Mediterranean coastal area: how does woods landscape affect home range?

“…No behaviour during the rut that could clearly be identified as an alternative mating tactic to territoriality was observed in prime-age roe deer males in early studies (Liberg et al 1998), but the observations of roaming males mating with females in our area could suggest that this could be the case in open areas. Our female range size and structure data were fairly close to those of wooded habitat studies (Bideau et al 1983;Vincent et al 1983;Chapman et al 1993;Lamberti et al 2001Lamberti et al , 2004 rather than to those of open habitats (Zejda and Bauerova 1985;Maublanc 1986;San Josè and Lovari 1998) and were larger than those for our stationary males. Usually, summer home ranges of adult females are thought to be of the same size as male territories (Liberg et al 1998), but their being larger in our study area might mean they overlap with the territory of other males.…”

“…In winter, especially in mountainous habitat, all roe deer show great variation in spatial behaviour in relation to resource availability and snow cover (Cederlund 1983;Mysterud 1999;Lamberti et al 2001;. In agricultural landscapes, roe deer show variability in social and spatial behaviour in relation with human activity and woodland fragmentation.…”

Ranging behaviour of roe deer in an experimental high-density population: Are females territorial?

“…during the birth period, while the distances between females' nearest arithmetic centres increased. These results are consistent with the females' exclusive core areas found by [10] and with the decrease in females' home range size in spring, found by most authors, in roe deer [8,[25][26][27][28], as in other deer species (white-tailed deer [29,30], fallow deer [31,32], red deer [33], caribou [34]). Some authors associate this decrease with a reduction of movement before parturition, which persists during the first weeks of the hiding fawns [8,35].…”

Population dynamics and social organization of sambar (Rusa unicolor unicolor) in Horton Plains National Park, Sri Lanka

“…The Kruskal–Wallis test is used to determine whether there is a significant difference among the median number of three spiked antlers observed every 2 months. The seasonality of the mean numbers of newborn calves and the three spiked hard‐antlered males was statistically tested by using the Friedman test (Lamberti et al, 2001). All the statistical tests were carried out using Minitab v18.0 and R statistical software.…”