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Habitat and herbivore density: Response of mule deer to habitat management
Author(s) -
Bergman Eric J.,
Doherty Paul F.,
White Gary C.,
Freddy David J.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the journal of wildlife management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.94
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1937-2817
pISSN - 0022-541X
DOI - 10.1002/jwmg.801
Subject(s) - habitat , herbivore , ecology , geography , biology
The suite of demands competing for wildlife management funds necessitates direct assessment of management decisions, especially when these decisions have direct costs, as well as tangible opportunity costs. We conducted a mark–resight study that estimated mule deer ( Odocoileus hemionus ) density across multiple study units in southwest Colorado that had been exposed to different intensities of habitat treatments. Our treatments were comprised of common habitat management techniques including hydro‐axe and roller‐chopper disturbances as well chemical control of weeds and reseeding with desirable mule deer browse species. Reference study units received no habitat management treatments. Total deer densities varied between 20–84 deer/km 2 in southern study units and 4–12 deer/km 2 in northern study units. We did not observe a consistent pattern of higher deer density on advanced treatment study units despite it being the primary hypothesis of the study. We observed a wide range of variation in deer density among years. Resighting probabilities (range 0.070–0.567) were best modeled as an interactive function of study unit and year, although sampling method was also influential. We recommend that if population density is to be used as a population response variable, it be used in tandem with other, possibly more sensitive parameters such as overwinter survival or late winter body condition. © 2014 The Wildlife Society.