Resource selection and survival of female white-tailed deer in an agricultural landscape
Date
2012
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Information regarding resource selection by female white-tailed deer in agricultural areas is necessary to develop management strategies to minimize crop damage. Understanding survival rates of white-tailed deer is also imperative for managers to develop management strategies to achieve desired populations of white-tailed deer. The objectives of this study were to investigate resource selection and estimate survival rates of female white-tailed deer in a fragmented agricultural landscape. I collected 13,409 telemetry locations from 44 radio collared adult female white-tailed deer to document mortalities and to estimate home range size and habitat availability. To investigate resource selection, I compared used locations to random available locations and created resource selection functions (RSFs). The 95% fixed kernel home ranges and 50% core areas differed by year (95%, F1, 39 = 8.87, P = 0.004; 50%, F1, 39 = 9.58, P = 0.003) and season (95%, F1, 39 = 13.77, P < 0.001; 50%, F1, 39 = 18.84, P < 0.001), but not by time of day (95%, F1, 39 < 0.01, P = 0.978; 50%, F1, 39 = 0.05, P = 0.825). Deer selected crop more during the nighttime growing season and less during the daytime hunting season. Although deer were using crop fields less during the hunting season, they remained within the property boundary where they used the most crop fields during the growing season. The annual survival rate was 0.43 (SE=0.11) and 0.72 (SE=0.28) for 2010 and 2011, respectively, and differed between years (χ2 = 5.21, P=0.022). The majority of documented mortalities were attributed to harvest (80%, n=16), whereas deer-vehicle collisions (15%, n=3) and natural mortality (5%, n=1) represent fewer mortalities. An extensive amount of snow fell in the area prior to the beginning of the 2010 hunting season and may have affected harvest numbers and overall survival rates the first year. Managers in the southeastern portion of white-tailed deer ranges need to take abnormal weather conditions into consideration when making predictions about harvest numbers and survival rates. My results suggest that farmers should be able to legally harvest deer that cause crop damage on their property. I recommend that farmers encourage hunters to move deeper into forested habitats to increase the likelihood of encountering deer and thus reducing crop damage.