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- Title
Daily, seasonal, and annual variations in individual home-range overlap of two sympatric species of deer.
- Authors
Richard, Emmanuelle; Saïd, Sonia; Hamann, Jean-Luc; Gaillard, Jean-Michel
- Abstract
Behavioural tactics of animals are determined by both environmental and social factors. Among nonmigratory ungulates, most home-range studies focused either on the effect of environmental variables on home-range size or on the overlap between home ranges of different individuals. Here, as rarely in previous studies, we aim to identify the dynamics of the home range of a given individual, involving variation in home-range size and home-range overlap between periods, for two resident populations of contrasting species: red deer ( Cervus elaphus L., 1758) and roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus (L., 1758)). In both species, yearly and seasonal home-range fidelity was high and constant (mean of 64% in red deer and mean of 66% in roe deer), possibly because of benefits accruing from knowledge of spatial distribution of food resources and refugia. Home range in winter, when food availability was low, was larger than other seasonal home ranges for both species. Differences in body size between red deer and roe deer accounted for observed between-species differences in space use, especially when the species were active at night. Our study clearly demonstrates that patterns of variation in home-range size are similar; however, between-species differences in body size lead to differential patterns of home-range size and fidelity.
- Subjects
DEER behavior; SEASONAL effects on wildlife; ANIMAL social behavior; EFFECT of environment on animals; HABITATS; FOOD chains
- Publication
Canadian Journal of Zoology, 2014, Vol 92, Issue 10, p853
- ISSN
0008-4301
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1139/cjz-2014-0045