Abstract
This study provides for the first time in the Carpathians analysis of spatial behaviour of 20 male red deer monitored during 2005–2013 using radio-telemetry. Two distinct spatial patterns were displayed in the same local population, i.e. residential and migratory. Residential annual home ranges were significantly smaller compared to migratory ones using both Minimum Convex Polygon and Kernel Home Range, due to periodic movement of migrants between distinct seasonal ranges. Residents remained in the same area throughout the year and showed a positive age effect on the home range size. While seasonal ranges of migrants were comparable in size, residents surprisingly expanded their space use in winter compared to other seasons. Fidelity to seasonal ranges over the years, especially winter, was striking and comparable in both migrants and residents with increasing tendency throughout the year (37–68 %). Vertical differences in home range altitudes were most obvious in migrants, although in both migrant types, significant descent was recorded during the winter. The longest horizontal movements were recorded in three young stags emigrating to neighbouring mountain ranges (30, 47 and 65 km). Because 45 % of the population seems to be migratory, the data support importance of large-scale hunting management established in Slovakia in 2009.
Highlights
The European red deer (Cervus elaphus) is the flagship game species in Slovakia; data on spatial behaviour of the species are scarce from this area
linear mixed-effects model (LME) revealed a significant difference between red deer adopting two different strategies using MCP 100 % (F=6.809, P=0.021) and KHR 90 % (F=8.573, P=0.011)
LME indicated that residents expanded their home range size with increasing age (F=5.127, P=0.045 using MCP 100 %; F=5.436, P=0.040 using LoCoH 90 %), while no age effect was seen in migrants (F=0.223, P=0.645 using MCP; F=0.143, P=0.712 using KHR; F=0.007, P=0.933 using LoCoH)
Summary
The European red deer (Cervus elaphus) is the flagship game species in Slovakia; data on spatial behaviour of the species are scarce from this area. Spatial behaviour of mammals is influenced by a variety of physiological, ecological and social factors, such as metabolic needs (McNab 1963), body mass (Harestad and Bunell 1979; Lindstedt et al 1986), mating system (Clutton-Brock and Harvey 1978; Clutton-Brock 1989), age (Georgii and Schröder 1983; Szemethy et al 1998; Kamler et al 2008), population density (Vincent et al 1995; Loe et al 2009), distribution of feeding habitats (Schmidt 1993; Mysterud et al 2001) and predation and human disturbance (Hebblewhite and Merrill 2007), resulting in a significant seasonal variation In this context, ungulates of northern hemispheres reduce food intake, activity and movement during winter within restricted home ranges (Georgii 1980; Clutton-Brock et al 1982; Georgii and Schröder 1983). The most prominent among these is clearly the forage maturation hypothesis, which formalizes how access to a more continuous supply of highly nutritious, newly emergent forage is a driving force of migration in large herbivores
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