墾丁國家公園臺灣梅花鹿(Cervus nippon taiouanus)之磨樹痕跡調查

Abstract

Because of population extinction of wild formosan Sika deer (Cervus nippon taiouanus) in 1969, Kenting National Park launched a Sika deer restoration program in 1983. In the year from 1994 to 1997, Sika deer was released to the field. Currently, homerange of the deer flock gradually encompass the She-Ting area. As the rubbing behavior of male Sika deer can cause tree damage, in order to understand the extent rubbing situations and whether the rubbing behavior causes any obvious effects on the local trees after the deer releasing to the field, a field exploration was conducted from March 2009 to January 2010. The results showed that along the surveyed transect field line, the Third District Forest Recreation Area had sixty-nine trees being rubbed and was the most severe zone. By contrast, three, one and none trees were rubbed at the Great Circle Mountain Ranch, the Yacht Rock and the five Pasture Areas of Tsai Po, respectively. Overall, a total of 518 trees (in 71 species, 35 family) were rubbed. Among them, 41 trees (in 18 species), i.e.7.9%, were repeatedly rubbed. The first ten tree species being rubbed most, in ranking order from the highest were Leucaena glauca, Aglaia formosana, Casuarina equisetifolia, Macaranga tanarius, Bridelia tomentosa Blume, Allophyllus timorensis, Bambusa dolichoclada Hayata, Melanolepis multiglandulosa, Champereia manillana and Acacia confus, respectively. In terms of tree sizes, smaller trees were rubbed more than larger trees, a percentage of 56.9% versus 42.8%, an indication that Sika deer preferred smaller trees for rubbing. Observations also showed that 38 trees (in 17 species) were rubbed to death. The death proportion was 7.3 % for which 76.3% were smaller trees. However, the dead trees were only 0.4% of the total trees surveyed, showing that the rubbing behavior caused no significant damage to the local trees. On the other hand, the density of the trees being rubbed increased (40：20 trees per km), suggesting that the population of Sika deer enlarged; a sign of successful restoration in the wild.