Space use, habitat selection and browsing effects of red deer in Sardinia

Figures & data

Figure 1. Estimates of deer numbers between 1989 and 1998.

Figure 2. Mean bimonthly home range sizes measured with different MCP estimates(100%, 95%, 50%) of adult (A) and subadult (B) hinds in 1997 and 1998. Vertical bars represent standard deviations.

Table I. Seasonal home range (MCP100%) overlap between preceding and following seasons and vice versa.

	Adult hinds (%)		Subadult hinds (%)		Male M1 (%)
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Autumn	68	10	37	6	37
Winter	48	18	48	2	99
Winter	43	22	57	19	68
Spring	97	4	57	11	79
Spring	43	37	73	18	70
Summer	67	36	72	23	59
Summer	91	12	17	20	73
Autumn	37	33	8	9	28
Winter	30	27	78	18	40
Summer	86	18	82	17	39
Spring	62	26	49	8	60
Autumn	39	33	28	3	19

Figure 3. Monthly number of tourists in the Reserve. FEB‐97 = February 1997; JAN‐98 = January 1998.

Figure 4. Variation of mean home range sizes(ha) in days with no tourists and in those with tourists.

Figure 5. Annual habitat selection(Ivlev index; third level, Johnson 1980).

Table II. Seasonal preference index (Ivlev, third level, see Johnson 1980). SF = subadult females, AF = adult females; M = male M1.

	Autumn			Winter			Spring			Summer
	SF	AF	M	SF	AF	M	SF	AF	M	SF	AF	M
Tall scrubwood	0.2	0.2	0.0	0.4	0.2	−0.2	0.3	0.2	−0.1	0.2	0.2	0.1
Cork oak	−0.1	−0.2	−0.6	−0.7	−0.5	0.5	−1.0	−0.3	0.9	−1.0	−0.3	−0.2
Olive				−0.7	−0.8							−1.0
Low scrubwood		−0.7	0.3	−0.8	−0.1	0.7		−0.6				−1.0
Oak wood	−0.4	−0.6	−0.1	−0.3	−0.4	−0.6	−0.2	−0.8	−0.8	−0.4	−0.4	−0.4
Riparian veg.	0.2	0.2	−0.1	0.2	0.2	−0.2	0.2	0.1	0.5	0.5	0.2	0.3
Open fields	0.5	0.3	0.5	0.2	−0.1	0.0	0.1	0.4	0.6	0.1	0.1	−0.2
Garigue		−1.0	−0.5	−1.0	−1.0		−1.0

Table III. Preferences for browsed species, in different seasons. In parentheses, the standardized Ivlev's selectivity index for each species (see Methods).

Vegetation	Winter	Spring	Summer	Autumn
Riparian veg.	Ruscus aculeatus (0.77)	Ruscus aculeatus (0.92)	–	Viburnum tinum (0.64)
	Salix caprea (0.67)	Alnus glutinosa (0.67)
Garigue	Quercus ilex (0.75)	Quercus ilex (0.90)	–	–
Low scrubwood	Myrtus communis (0.67)	Myrtus communis (0.84)	–	–

Table IV. Selectivity (Ivlev's index) of different vegetation types, in each season. A = availability; U = use.

	Riparian vegetation	Cork oak wood	Low scrubwood
Autumn	0.027	−0.102	−0.014
Winter	0.152	0.108	0.038
Summer	0.104	0.235	0.160
Spring	−0.389	0.003	−0.515
	Garigue	Tall scrubwood	Oak wood
Autumn	−0.612	0.436	−0.115
Winter	−0.362	0.267	−0.172
Summer	−0.103	0.004	−0.403
Spring	−0.627	0.131	0.341

Figure 6. Browsed plants in relation to their overall abundance. For each species is reported the percentage of plants browsed in relation to the total number of plants recorded.

Figure 7. Proportion of shrub/tree species killed by browsing in each habitat.

Figure 8. Monthly variations in the relationships between number of browsed plants(trees and scrubs) and height of herbaceous layer associations. Browsing frequency was low when the herbaceous vegetation peaked. Data on availability of grass associations are from the Monte Arcosu WWF Reserve archive.

Johnson , D. H. 1980 . The comparison of usage and availability measurements for evaluating resource preference. . Ecology , 61 : 65 – 71 .

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