Mobility of Missouri Deer and Their Harassment by Dogs

Abstract

There is little information on the mobility of the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the middle United States; data are equally limited on the mobility of whitetails on land that is primarily agricultural or where there is yearlong harassment by dogs. The present study was made under all those conditions. It was based principally upon repeated observations of individually marked deer rather than upon kill records of tagged animals, which have often been the principal source of movement data for deer. The study was carried out on the University of Missouri's Ashland Wildlife Research Refuge in Boone County and on adjacent private farmland. Most of the 2,240-acre refuge is forested with secondgrowth oak and hickory. Few stands of mature timber are found, but mast-producing trees are abundant. Large, bottomland corn fields are nearby, and small, ridge-top openings are planted to crops or are in various stages of old-field succession. The deer population in this locality probably did not exceed 20 per square mile during the study. Snow was never deep, and the deer did not yard. The period of intensive study was September 1952 to May 1956, but some data were gathered as early as March 1951, and as late as November 1957. Deer were captured in modified Stephenson-type traps baited with ear corn and stock salt. Although trapping was carried on intermittently throughout the year, most of it was done during the winter and spring. The animals were marked individually in various ways. All except those recognized by distinctive antler shapes or other natural markings were tagged with plastic discs that were attached to the ears with button-type stock tags. Several ear-tagged deer were also marked with small bells attached to dog collars or with wide, colored collars, as described by Progulske (1957). Searches for marked deer were made by varied methods: on foot, from a tower, blind, automobile, small airplane, and by trailing in the snow; a few records were obtained from hunting recoveries. Although there is probably some bias in favor of the more sedentary deer, deliberate attempts were made to avoid this by varying methods, routes, and times, and by frequent searches for marked deer several miles from any trap. One hundred ninety-four records of movement were obtained for 31 deer identified by the markings described above. These included 17 recognizable adult bucks, 11 adult does, and 3 fawns. Nine other deer were tagged but not seen again. An adult doe, tagged in November 1954, was shot in November 1957; this 36-month span was the longest for any of the marked deer. The greatest number of records for any one animal was 30; this number was obtained both for a doe shot 19 months after being tagged, and for a buck last seen 6 months after being marked.