Twenty-year home-range dynamics of a white-tailed deer matriline

Abstract

Abstract:We examined the seasonal migration and home-range dynamics of a multigeneration white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) matriline comprising six females from four generations spanning a 20-year period in northeastern Minnesota. All, from the matriarch to her great-granddaughter, migrated to the same summer and winter ranges, the longest individual record being 14.5 years. Three maternal females concurrently occupied exclusive fawning sites within their ancestral matriarch's summer range, while two nonmaternal females explored new areas and ranged near their mothers. One great-granddaughter expanded her summer range 1 km beyond the matriarch's summer range while essentially vacating half of her ancestors' range and becoming nonmigratory the last 4 years of her life. These data indicate that individual movements of matriline members can potentially expand their ranges beyond the areas occupied by their ancestors through a slow process of small incremental changes. This suggests that the rapid extension of deer range in eastern North America resulted from natal dispersal by yearling deer rather than from the type of home-range expansion reported here. Résumé

Passive Surveillance for I. scapularis Ticks: Enhanced Analysis for Early Detection of Emerging Lyme Disease Risk

“…In general, deer are thought to be important in tick dispersal (Madhav et al 2004) but this is limited to the geographic scale of their home ranges and seasonal movements (in the order of 10 km: (Nelson and Mech 1999). Migratory passerines are thought to disperse I. scapularis across a wide front into southeastern and southÐ central provinces (Rand et al 1998;Ogden et al 2008a;Scott et al 2010;Brinkerhoff et al 2011a, b) during their northward spring migration.…”

Effect of supplemental feeding on spatial distribution and browse utilization by white-tailed deer in semi-arid rangeland

“…Even longterm changes, such as provision of permanent water sources, did not change the home range size of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) or desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) (Krausman and Etchberger, 1995). Female white-tailed deer tend to stay in traditional matrilineal home ranges (Inglis et al, 1979;Nelson and Mech, 1999), thus, it is not surprising that a short-term change, such as access to supplemental feed had no discernable effect on total home range size of the does.…”

Variation in strontium isotope ratios of archaeological fauna in the Midwestern United States: a preliminary study

“…Three muskrat (Ondatra zibethica) specimens from the Hoxie Farm site comprise one of the few small, nonmigratory local fauna identified in the faunal assemblages and the only aquatic species sampled (Table 1). Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are relatively abundant in midwest faunal collections, have a small home range, and were a significant dietary component of prehistoric peoples (e.g., Nelson and Mech, 1999). Deer therefore likely contributed significantly to the strontium ratios of human inhabitants of each site and represent the remainder of samples used in this study.…”