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- Title
Effects of Bait on Male White-Tailed Deer Resource Selection.
- Authors
Johnson, James T.; Chandler, Richard B.; Conner, L. Mike; Cherry, Michael J.; Killmaster, Charlie H.; Johannsen, Kristina L.; Miller, Karl V.
- Abstract
Simple Summary: Bait is often used to attract wildlife to enhance viewing opportunities, increase harvest rates, or to improve population survey methods for research and management purposes. However, baiting wildlife can alter animal behavior, leading to negative outcomes such as increased disease transmission, competition, and susceptibility to predation. Our objectives were to determine the effects of short-term baiting on male white-tailed deer behavior and distributions within several properties in southwestern Georgia, USA. We used cameras at baited and unbaited locations to assess the impacts of bait on deer space use within home ranges and to determine whether bait caused shifts in the distribution of home ranges during summer and winter surveys. We found little evidence that short-term baiting affected the distributions of home ranges on the landscape; however, we found evidence that space use within home ranges was affected by bait. By concentrating deer space use within seasonal home ranges, bait may enhance disease transmission and change harvest susceptibility. Bait is often used to increase wildlife harvest susceptibility, enhance viewing opportunities, and survey wildlife populations. The effects of baiting depend on how bait influences space use and resource selection at multiple spatial scales. Although telemetry studies allow for inferences about resource selection within home ranges (third-order selection), they provide limited information about spatial variation in density, which is the result of second-order selection. Recent advances in spatial capture-recapture (SCR) techniques allow exploration of second- and third-order selection simultaneously using non-invasive methods such as camera traps. Our objectives were to describe how short-term baiting affects white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) behavior and distribution. We fit SCR models to camera data from baited and unbaited locations in southwestern Georgia to assess the effects of short-term baiting on second- and third-order selection of deer during summer and winter surveys. We found little evidence of second-order selection during late summer or early winter surveys when camera surveys using bait are typically conducted. However, we found evidence for third-order selection, indicating that resource selection within home ranges is affected. Concentrations in space use resulting from baiting may enhance disease transmission, change harvest susceptibility, and potentially bias the outcome of camera surveys using bait.
- Subjects
GEORGIA; WHITE-tailed deer; DEER behavior; ANIMAL behavior; ANIMAL populations; WILDLIFE watching
- Publication
Animals (2076-2615), 2021, Vol 11, Issue 8, p2334
- ISSN
2076-2615
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/ani11082334