Food Passage Rate in the White-Tailed Deer

Mautz, William W.; Petrides, George A.

doi:10.2307/3799778

Cited by 45 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…At McGowan's Woods, based on our average of 38 germinations per pellet group over the year, and with a daily defecation rate of 35 pellet groups per deer (Rogers 1987) and a local density of 20 deer per km 2 (P. Curtis, Cornell University; personal communication), we estimate that a mean of 10 viable seeds per m 2 are deposited by white-tailed deer each year. Given the wide-ranging daily movements of white-tailed deer, and typical times between ingestion and deposition of up to several days (Mautz and Petrides 1971;GonzalezEspinosa and Quintana-Ascencio 1986), the seeds are likely to be dispersed hundreds to, occasionally, thousands of meters (Vellend et al 2003), and even farther during seasonal migration (Halls 1984). White-tailed deer forage in a diversity of habitats, and there is no reason to suspect that our forest samples differ in any way from pellet groups deposited throughout their home ranges (>100 ha in some regions; Lesage et al 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seed dispersal by white-tailed deer: implications for long-distance dispersal, invasion, and migration of plants in eastern North America

et al. 2004

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For many plant species in eastern North America, short observed seed dispersal distances (ranging up to a few tens of meters) fail to explain rapid rates of invasion and migration. This discrepancy points to a substantial gap in our knowledge of the mechanisms by which seeds are dispersed long distances. We investigated the potential for white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus Zimm.), the dominant large herbivore in much of eastern North America, to disperse seeds via endozoochory. This is the first comprehensive study of seed dispersal by white-tailed deer, despite a vast body of research on other aspects of their ecology. More than 70 plant species germinated from deer feces collected over a 1-year period in central New York State, USA. Viable seeds included native and alien herbs, shrubs, and trees, including several invasive introduced species, from the full range of habitat types in the local flora. A mean of >30 seeds germinated per fecal pellet group, and seeds were dispersed during all months of the year. A wide variety of presumed dispersal modes were represented (endo- and exozoochory, wind, ballistic, ant, and unassisted). The majority were species with small-seeded fruits having no obvious adaptations for dispersal, underscoring the difficulty of inferring dispersal ability from diaspore morphology. Due to their broad diet, wide-ranging movements, and relatively long gut retention times, white-tailed deer have tremendous potential for effecting long-distance seed dispersal via ingestion and defecation. We conclude that white-tailed deer represent a significant and previously unappreciated vector of seed dispersal across the North American landscape, probably contributing an important long-distance component to the seed shadows of hundreds of plant species, and providing a mechanism to help explain rapid rates of plant migration.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seed dispersal by white-tailed deer: implications for long-distance dispersal, invasion, and migration of plants in eastern North America

et al. 2004

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“…Approxi-Volume 33 (1), 2013 Natural Areas Journal 79 mately 48 hours later, we collected all the fresh deer scats from the enclosure. This time length was chosen because a study using a radioisotope marker to measure gut retention showed that 95% percent of the marker, and presumably gut contents, had been passed in under 48 hours, varying slightly with different size deer (Mautz and Petrides 1971). All scats were stored in plastic bags under refrigeration until processing.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) Disperse Seeds of the Invasive Shrub, Amur Honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii)

Castellano

Gorchov

2013

Natural Areas Journal

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“…(A-C) A small frugivorous bird (Black-faced Solitaire Myadestes melanops) defecating three different small tropical fruits (after Murray 1988); (D) a large bird (Ruwenzori Turaco Musophaga johnstoni) defecating a range of ''fast-passage'' seeds (after Sun et al 1997); (E) the predominantly carnivorous murid American marten (Martes americana) defecating a small fruit seed (after Hickey et al 1999); (F) white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) passing a radioisotope marker (after Mautz and Petrides 1971). In each case, mean and standard deviation of the empirical GPT data were calculated based on the approximate data values read from published graphs and a lognormal curve was fitted.…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

A simple parametric method for reducing sample sizes in gut passage time trials

Rawsthorne

Roshier

Murphy

2009

Ecology

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Seed dispersal is now regularly analyzed using spatially explicit models, relying in part on frugivore gut passage times to produce model outputs. In determining species-specific gut passage times, there is a trade-off in sample size between minimizing collection effort and maintaining statistical reliability. Here we demonstrate that a two-parameter lognormal parametric distribution reliably fits empirical gut passage time distributions and is easily parameterized using relatively small data sets of approximately 30 defecations. We suggest this approach as a statistically reliable substitute for larger empirical gut passage data sets in seed dispersal modeling, and also as a way of using published gut passage data sets to parameterize new models.

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Food Passage Rate in the White-Tailed Deer

Cited by 45 publications

References 0 publications

Seed dispersal by white-tailed deer: implications for long-distance dispersal, invasion, and migration of plants in eastern North America

Seed dispersal by white-tailed deer: implications for long-distance dispersal, invasion, and migration of plants in eastern North America

White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) Disperse Seeds of the Invasive Shrub, Amur Honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii)

A simple parametric method for reducing sample sizes in gut passage time trials

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