Spatially biased reduction of browsing damage by sika deer through culling

Abstract

Culling large herbivores can reduce browsing damage. Our objective was to verify the effect of culling by considering spatial changes in browsing damage to test the hypothesis that the benefits of spatially biased culling extend to the spatial scale of culling. Culling sika deer (Cervus nippon) in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, increased from 2009–2017, but browsing damage remained stable across the prefecture; regional damage trends differed among grid meshes (i.e., 5 km × 5 km). Meshes with browsing damage reduction received higher culling pressure and a decline in the deer population. Browsing damage reduction from culling was not uniform across regions and was biased by spatial bias in culling. This study highlights the importance of spatial scale in large herbivore management and evaluation of its effect.

A 17-Year Study of the Response of Populations to Different Patterns in Antlerless Proportion of Imposed Culls: Antlerless Culling Reduces Overabundant Deer Population

“…Furthermore, recent studies suggesting effective management emphasised the importance of an appropriate spatial scale and the size of the management unit [ 62 , 63 ]. Therefore, our study represents an important demonstration of this theory on a large spatial scale, which is more similar in size to the actual management unit of sika deer [ 30 ]. As population decline with culling can decrease browsing damage [ 30 ] and deer exclusion is effective in natural visitation restoration [ 64 ], it is hoped that antlerless culling will contribute to more effective conservation of forest environments.…”

“…Inunaki-yama, Hiko-san, and Inugatake ( Figure 1 ), with altitudes of 584, 1199, and 1131 m, respectively. Detailed survey methods and survey sites were described in our previous reports [ 30 , 40 ].…”

“…The series of analyses in this study were based on Suzuki et al [ 30 ], and all analyses were performed in R 3.5.2 [ 43 ]. In addition, p -values were interpreted following Muff et al [ 44 ].…”

“…Although these studies provided important knowledge for population management, it is necessary to determine the effectiveness of this strategy on larger spatial scales along administrative divisions for use in actual management for long periods. However, when evaluated on larger spatial scales, regional differences in culling pressure are more likely to occur and the impact of culling is stronger around areas of high culling pressure [ 30 ]. Therefore, to more accurately determine the effects of antlerless culling, an approach that considers spatial variation in abundance is needed.…”

Bipolarized characteristics of ranging behaviour in sedentary Sika deer on Kyushu Island, Japan

“…2022; Suzuki et al, 2022b). Furthermore, the conservation of Sika deer and other non-primate mammals are undoubtedly crucial for understanding the evolutionary diversity of behavioural plasticity and intelligence, especially regarding spatiotemporal resource information, as they possess relatively simple neural and brain functions that can provide insights into the evolution of human intelligence (Fagan et al, 2013).…”