The effect of experimental manipulation of population density on home-range size was investigated in two free-ranging roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) populations under contrasting environmental conditions. In these two long-term monitoring studies, one in Bogesund, Sweden (12 years) and one in Dourdan, France (10 years), deer density varied fourfold through varying culling pressure. Home-range data were collected by radio-tracking across the periods of contrasting density of the studies. We predicted that home-range size for females should vary in relation to the level of feeding competition, while for males, competition for mating opportunities should also influence range size, at least in summer when roe bucks are territorial. We found a highly consistent pattern over the two populations, with strong effects of deer density on home-range size, as well as significant differences between winter and summer ranges and between the sexes. Home ranges were consistently smaller at high density compared to low density. Males had larger ranges than females and this was particularly so during summer. Lastly, winter ranges were generally larger than summer ranges, particularly among females, although males at Dourdan had larger summer ranges compared to winter ranges. We suggest that the reduction of range size at high deer density during winter, as well as summer, is linked to the solitary behaviour and territorial social system of roe deer, with possible effects of dominance rank, even outside the mating season.

In this paper, we present an analysis of the consequences of increasing density, over a period of nine years (from 1980 to 1988), on the dynamics, and the social and spatial organization of a forest roe deer population. Hunting of this population ceased in 1979, after which time there was a significant increase in population density, with three distinct periods easily identified: 1980–1983 (PI), immediately following cessation of hunting, characterized by a relatively low density (d = 5–7 animals/100 ha), 1984–1985 (P2), a period of rapid population growth, and 1986–88 (P3), a period of high density (d = 25 animals/100 ha). During PI, the population was irregularly distributed across the study site but, as density increased, distribution became more uniform, and eventually covered the whole of the available area. Home‐range structure and shape remained unchanged from PI to P3 but, by the end of the study, average range size was 30% lower for adult males only, and the period prior to subadult males, but not females, establishing a permanent home range had increased from c. 18 month to c. 30 months. Winter group size increased overall from PI to P3 with, for the first time, observations of groups of five or more animals and a reduction in the frequency of observations of solitary females, with does more commonly observed in pairs or small groups; the proportion of solitary males, however, did not change between the two periods. The mean number of kids per female declined significantly from PI to P3 and body weights recorded for juveniles of both sexes and for adult males were also significantly lower during the period of relatively high density (P3). However, for adult females, absolutely no body weight change was observed. This divergence between the sexes of response to increasing density is discussed.

Body size of large herbivores is a crucial life history variable influencing individual fitness‐related traits. While the importance of this parameter in determining temporal trends in population dynamics is well established, much less information is available on spatial variation in body size at a local infra‐population scale. The relatively recent increase in landscape fragmentation over the last century has lead to substantial spatial heterogeneity in habitat quality across much of the modern agricultural landscape. In this paper, we analyse variation in body mass and size of roe deer inhabiting a heterogeneous agricultural landscape characterised by a variable degree of woodland fragmentation. We predicted that body mass should vary in relation to the degree of access to cultivated meadows and crops providing high quality diet supplements. In support of our prediction, roe deer body mass increased along a gradient of habitat fragmentation, with the heaviest deer occurring in the most open sectors and the lightest in the strict forest environment. These spatial differences were particularly pronounced for juveniles, reaching >3 kg (ca 20% of total body mass) between the two extremes of this gradient, and likely have a marked impact on individual fates. We also found that levels of both nitrogen and phosphorous were higher in deer faecal samples in the more open sectors compared to the forest environment, suggesting that the spatial patterns in body mass could be linked to the availability of high quality feeding habitat provided by the cultivated agricultural plain. Finally, we found that adults in the forest sector were ca 1 kg lighter for a given body size than their counterparts in the more open sectors, suggesting that access to nutrient rich foods allowed deer to accumulate substantial fat reserves, which is unusual for roe deer, with likely knock‐on effects for demographic traits and, hence, population dynamics.

In large mammalian herbivores, the increase of group size with habitat openness was first assumed to be an adaptive response, encoded in the individual. However, it could, alternatively, be an emergent property: if groups were nonpermanent units, often fusing and splitting up, then any increase of the distance at which animals perceive one another could increase the rate of group fusion and thus mean group size. Dynamical models and empirical data support this second hypothesis. This is not to say that adaptive modifications of mean herd size cannot occur. However, this changes the way in which we can envisage the history of gregariousness in large herbivores during the Tertiary.

Patterns of growth and seasonal variation in body mass, kidney fat level, and bone marrow fat level were investigated in a roe deer population south of Paris. Size dimorphism was not apparent until the deer were 2 years of age, following a second period of rapid growth in males during spring-summer. No differences between the sexes in fat accumulation or in the periodicity of the annual fat cycle were observed. However, annual cycles of adult body mass were asynchronous between the sexes. Carcase mass was stable for much of the year, but one marked seasonal decline was observed in animals of each sex. For females (April -August) this reflected investment in late gestation and lactation, but among males (April-November) it was presumably linked to the costs of rutting. Contrary to reports for other ungulates, no over-winter decline in adult carcase mass, kidney fat level, or bone marrow fat level was observed, possibly because winters were mild. All four fat indices (kidney fat index, three bone-marrow fat indices) declined over spring -summer. This seasonal cyclicity does not match the energy requirements of reproductive activity, suggesting that the fat cycle is intrinsic, linked to seasonal metabolic variation in roe deer. We suggest that carcase mass is a more reliable index of condition in roe deer.RCsurnC : La croissance et les variations saisonnikres de la masse corporelles, de la graisse perirenale et de la graisse de la moelle osseuse ont ete etudies chez une population de Chevreuils. Le dimorphisme quant B taille n'apparait qu'B l'ige de 2 ans, B la suite d'une seconde periode de croissance rapide chez les miles au printemps et en ete. L'accumulation des graisses et la periodicite de leur cycle annuel ne diffkrent pas chez les miles et les femelles. Cependant les cycles annuels de la masse corporelle des adultes ne sont pas synchronises entre les deux sexes. La masse de la carcasse est relativement constante, mais une chute saisonnibe marquee se produit chez les deux sexes. Chez les femelles (avril-aoQt), elle correspond B l'investissement energetique important au moment de la gestation et de la lactation. Chez les miles (avril-novembre), elle est sans doute attribuable aux depenses energetiques liees au rut. Aucune diminution de la masse de la carcasse, de la graisse perirenale ou de la graisse de la moelle osseuse n'a ete observee chez les adultes au cours de l'hiver; ce resultat atypique peut Ctre dQ aux hivers doux. De plus, les quatre indices des graisses ont diminuk entre le printemps et 1'Cte. Cette cyclicite saisonnikre suggkre une origine intrinskque au cycle annuel des graisses, lie aux variations saisonnikres du metabolisme chez l'espkce. Nous recommandons l'utilisation de la masse de la carcasse comme indicateur de la condition physique chez le Chevreuil.