Download or read book A Spatially Explicit Model of the White tailed Deer Population in Delaware written by Brian Jennings and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) population models are used by many states to predict population levels and aid in making management decisions. Delaware did not have a deer population model, so I developed a model and used it to investigate the implications of changes to the harvest. I used survival rates, reproductive rates, harvest data, a population estimate, and spotlight counts to construct the model. The changes to the harvest regime that I considered were permitting Sunday hunting during the opening weekend of the November firearm season, adding 1 week to the November shotgun season, termination of the severe deer damage permits, closing the October antlerless shotgun season, closing the shotgun season in January, closing the muzzleloader season in January, and closing both shotgun and muzzleloader seasons in January. The model began in February 2006 after the conclusion of the 2005-2006 hunting season and I ran the scenarios until August 2014. Without changing the harvest regime, my model predicted the state population to decrease 28% by the fall of 2014. Allowing Sunday hunting during the opening weekend of the main firearm season and adding an additional week onto the main firearm season caused the population to decline at a greater rate by 2014. Terminating the severe deer damage program did not impact the 2014 predicted deer population compared to the scenario without changing the harvest regimes. Closing the October antlerless season and the January shotgun season caused a 23% increase to the 2014 predicted population, in both scenarios. Compared to scenario without changing the harvest regimes, the deer population was 11% greater in 2014 with the January muzzleloader season closed and 37% greater in 2014 with both January shotgun and muzzleloader seasons closed. The model predicted that the differentdeer management zones have very different population levels and harvest rates. To date, the harvest regimes in Delaware have only been changed at the state level but future changes to the harvest regimes should occur at the zone level. Several options are available for managers to increase or decrease the deer population by 2014. Managers can further reduce the deer population by allowing Sunday hunting during the opening weekend of the main firearm season and/or adding an additional week onto the main shotgun season. If managers decide to slow or stop the population decline, then closing the October antlerless season and/or the late January seasons are the best methods. Terminating the severe deer damage assistance program is not an effective method to slow or stop the declining trend, because removing the deer harvested under the program only caused a 4% increase to the 2014 population. Depending on the desired 2014 population level, managers can adjust the harvest regimes accordingly to meet their population goal.
Download or read book Survival Movement and Habitat Selection of Adult White tailed Deer in Southern Delaware written by Jacob M. Haus and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chapter 1 of this dissertation examines survival of subadult male white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in southern Delaware. Increasing male age structure in white-tailed deer populations has become an important objective for many state managers and private landowners seeking to improve hunter satisfaction while maintaining appropriate deer densities. Limiting mortality in the subadult age class is often the primary consideration, and regional differences in climate, habitat, regulations, and hunter behavior complicate understanding of how specific factors influence the risk of mortality. I used Cox proportional hazard modeling to examine the effects of mean distance to road, mean distance to habitat edge, dispersal behaviors, and landownership on the risk of mortality of a collared population of subadult males (n = 61) in Sussex County, Delaware, USA. Annual survival averaged 0.60 (95% confidence interval = 0.49 – 0.73), with hunter harvest accounting for 79% of all mortalities. The best approximating supported model for risk of mortality included covariates for landownership (public versus private; P
Download or read book White tailed Deer in Eastern Ecosystems written by William F. Porter and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Individual based Modeling of White tailed Deer Odocoileus Virginianus Movements and Epizootiology written by Lene Jung Kjaer and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are important game mammals and potential reservoirs of diseases of domestic livestock, so diseases of deer are of great concern to wildlife managers. Individual-based modeling (IBM) has become more commonplace in ecology as a tool to link individual behavior to population dynamics and community interactions, especially for gauging the effects of management actions. Spatially explicit IBMs are especially useful when ecological processes, such as disease transmission, are affected by the spatial composition of the environment. The author developed a spatially explicit IBM, DeerLandscapeDisease (DLD), to simulate direct and indirect disease transmission in white-tailed deer. Using data from GPS-collared deer in southern Illinois, methods were developed to identify habitats and times of high contact probability. The results demonstrate the utility of IBMs in incorporating spatio-temporal variables as well as animal behavior when predicting and modeling disease spread.
Download or read book The Effect of White tailed Deer Density on Breeding Songbirds in Delaware written by Elizabeth Tymkiw and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Currently, population goals for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are based solely on deer data with little consideration given to other parts of the ecosystem. A wider ecological approach is needed to provide managers with a more justifiable target deer density. I investigated the use of breeding birds to determine an ecologically based carrying capacity for deer management by studying the relationship between the forest breeding bird community and deer density in Delaware. Using Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data from 2005-2009, my own point count data from 2008-2009, and Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife deer density data from the same time periods, I compared avian species richness and relative abundance to deer density. I divided deer densities into low (=10 deer/km2), moderate (11-19 deer/km2) and high (=20 deer/km2) categories. I placed birds into 7 deer-sensitive guilds: interior obligates, ground nesters, shrub nesters, ground gleaners, low canopy foragers, and neo-tropical migrants. The abundance or richness of most guilds and most individual species did not differ by deer density. Of those guilds that did, shrub nesters (P = 0.074), interior forest obligates (P = 0.050), low canopy foragers (P
Download or read book Estimating The Effects Of Changes In Harvest Management On White Tailed Deer Odocoileous Virginianus Populations written by Amanda Van Buskirk and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: White-tailed deer (Odocoileous Virginianus) are considered a dominant and abundant species in forested landscapes in the eastern United States, and deer management, which often involves reducing deer densities, is crucial to keep populations in balance with their habitat. In Pennsylvania, state agencies such as the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Forestry have implemented deer management programs that use hunter harvest to reduce deer densities in specific geographical areas in order to meet various land-use and human health objectives. We developed a spatially explicit, agent-based model to investigate the intensity of deer removal required to locally reduce deer density depending on the surrounding deer density, dispersal behavior, and size and shape of the area of localized reduction. Our model indicated that a localized reduction was successful for scenarios in which the surrounding deer density was lowest (30 deer/mi2), antlerless harvest rates were >= 30%, and the reduction area was 5 mi2 or larger. Based on the results from our model simulations, we evaluated the effectiveness of a deer management program at reducing deer densities on four forested study areas that meet the criteria for a successful localized deer density reduction. We developed a method to estimate deer density that combines a distance sampling technique with a resource selection model of deer distribution to estimate deer density on the study areas and determine if deer density reductions occurred. In addition, we used data collected from distance sampling surveys and global positioning system (GPS) locations of collared deer on a disease management area (DMA) in Pennsylvania to assess two types of resource selection models: resource selection functions modeled as second-order selection and step-selection functions. We wanted to evaluate if each method resulted in different inferences regarding deer density estimates over four survey periods. Based on our estimates of deer density for the four forested study sites, deer densities are being reduced or maintained on all study areas. For data from deer on the DMA, both resource selection functions and step-selection functions predicted that deer distribution varied temporally. Overall, our analyses provide insight into the factors that contribute to a successful localized deer density reduction, offer a method for estimating deer density that suggests that the Pennsylvania Game Commission is effectively reducing deer densities on certain areas, and indicate that both resource selection functions and step selection functions may be appropriate for identifying temporal variations in deer distributions.
Download or read book A System Model for White tailed Deer Population Management in Northeastern Washington written by Aki Kato and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Final Report of the Believability of DNR White tailed Deer Population Estimates Study Group written by Deer Management for 2000 and Beyond (Wis.). Believability of DNR White-tailed Deer Population Estimates Study Group and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Spatial Ecology and Responses to a Controlled Hunt of Female White tailed Deer in an Exurban Park written by Craig L. Rhoads and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 93 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have adapted to and thrive in highly fragmented exurban habitats. Consequently, managers face new challenges dealing with deer population control in areas where traditional harvest regimes may no longer be practical or effective. Little is known about exurban deer ecology or about deer responses to controlled hunts, the latter of which is the most common method used for exurban deer population control. My study investigated spatial ecology and responses to controlled hunts of an exurban deer population residing on Fair Hill Natural Resource Management Area in Cecil County, Maryland. Fair Hill is an exurban park bordered by residential development and agricultural areas, and serves as a potential source for deer-human conflicts. From June 2004--January 2006, I collected approximately 37,000 telemetry locations on 66 collared female white-tailed deer to investigate seasonal home range sizes, home range fidelity, and hourly movement rates. Additionally, I monitored all deer before, during, and after a controlled shotgun hunt to investigate deer responses to hunting pressure. Average adaptive kernel home range sizes ranged from 8.1 ha--21.7 ha and 70.9 ha--144.5 ha among seasons at the 50% and 95% spatial scales, respectively. Average home range sizes followed a general increasing trend from the fawning through post-hunting season. Seasonal home range overlap differed by season at the 50% and 95% spatial scales, with the least overlap occurring between the post-hunting and fawning seasons (50%: x¯ = 19.4%, 95%: x¯ = 33.3%). Circadian activity rates varied among seasons, with dusk movements being greatest in all seasons. Average diurnal activity was greatest during the middle (1 Oct--30 Nov; x¯ = 65.7 m/hr) and late (1 Dec--31 Jan; x¯ = 67.8 m/hr) seasons and least during the post-hunting (1 Feb--30 Apr; x¯ = 46.2 m/hr). I found significant spatial and temporal responses of white-tailed deer to hunting pressure. Deer in non-refuge areas moved significantly more during (x¯ = 560.1 m) than either before (x¯ = 382.5 m) or after (x¯ = 417.5 m) the controlled hunts, whereas movement of deer in refuge areas did not change in response to the controlled hunt. Onstand and off-stand movements, defined as movements occurring while hunters were onstand or off-stand respectively, were greater in non-refuge (x¯ = 408.9 m and x¯ = 456.4 m) than refuge (x¯ = 261.2m and x¯ = 307.4 m) areas. Increased use of refuge areas in response to the controlled hunt resulted in a 20%--25% decrease in the percentage of deer available for harvest after the hunt. Consequently, only 50% of monitored deer remained available for harvest by the end of the hunt. My results suggest that to increase the efficacy of the current controlled hunt design at Fair Hill, managers should attempt to eliminate areas currently serving as refuge areas and consider changing hunt hours to include the dusk activity period.
Download or read book Development and Evaluation of a Habitat Suitability Model for White tailed Deer in an Agricultural Landscape written by Eric Anstedt and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 47 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are an ecological, economical, and socially significant species that occupy a variety of ecoregions. White-tailed deer are mobile habitat generalists that prefer habitats containing woody cover. Deer have successfully adapted to habitat-fragmented, agricultural landscapes. As a result, deer are not uniformly distributed across intensively cultivated areas, which make field surveys difficult with often highly variable spatial data. To increase sampling efficiency (deer observed / sampling effort), the landscape can be stratified based upon preferred habitat types. Habitat suitability models (HSI) have been used to represent hypothesized wildlife-habitat relationships, and therefore the likelihood of deer being observed may likely vary based on HSI scores. My research objective was to improve field sampling efforts for spotlight surveys in an intensive agricultural landscape of southwest Minnesota, using HSI modeling to stratify the landscape. An HSI model previously created for white-tailed deer populations in Illinois (original HSI) and a modified HSI model that I created which included grassland habitats were utilized. Deer management unit (DMU) HSI scores were correlated with deer densities at the statewide level and the original HSI and modified HSI models explained much of the variation in DMU deer densities at the statewide level. Spotlight surveys were conducted in spring 2015 and 2016 to test both models on a local level. The modified HSI model was more efficient at predicting where deer could be in agricultural landscapes, in large part, because the original HSI model ignored grassland habitats and many deer were observed in these habitats. The modified HSI model is recommended to stratify habitats for transect surveys to better predict the distribution and abundance of white-tailed deer in agricultural landscapes, which will improve sampling efficiency.
Download or read book White tailed Deer written by Lowell K. Halls and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 870 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Information on white-tail deer population in 21 regions worldwide, covering: ecology, population, and management needs and opportunities.
Download or read book The Episcopal Church in South Dakota written by and published by . This book was released on 1979* with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book White Tailed Deer Population written by Ruth L. Hines and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Spatial Analysis of the Factors Influencing the Suburban White tailed Deer Population of Village West Texas written by Shawna Lee Bowshot and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting Abstracts written by Ecological Society of America. Meeting and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 788 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Monitoring Vertebrate Populations written by William L. Thompson and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 1998-08-17 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is written to serve as a general reference for biologists and resource managers with relatively little statistical training. It focuses on both basic concepts and practical applications to provide professionals with the tools needed to assess monitoring methods that can detect trends in populations. It combines classical finite population sampling designs with population enumeration procedures in a unified approach for obtaining abundance estimates for species of interest. The statistical information is presented in practical, easy-to-understand terminology. Presented in practical, easy-to-understand terminology Serves as a general reference for biologists and resource managers Provides the tools needed to detect trends in populations Introduces a unified approach for obtaining abundance estimates
Download or read book Biology and Management of White tailed Deer written by David G. Hewitt and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2011-06-24 with total page 668 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Wildlife Society Outstanding Edited Book Award for 2013! Winner of the Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society Outstanding Book Award for 2011! Winner of a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award for 2011! Biology and Management of White-tailed Deer organizes and presents information on the most studied large mammal species in the world. The book covers the evolutionary history of the species, its anatomy, physiology, and nutrition, population dynamics, and ecology across its vast range (from central Canada through northern South America). The book then discusses the history of management of white-tailed deer, beginning with early Native Americans and progressing through management by Europeans and examining population lows in the early 1900s, restocking efforts through the mid 1900s, and recent, overabundant populations that are becoming difficult to manage in many areas. Features: Co-published with the Quality Deer Management Association Compiles valuable information for white-tailed deer enthusiasts, managers, and biologists Written by an authoritative author team from diverse backgrounds Integrates white-tailed deer biology and management into a single volume Provides a thorough treatment of white-tailed deer antler biology Includes downloadable resources with color images The backbone of many state wildlife management agencies' policies and a featured hunting species through much of their range, white-tailed deer are an important species ecologically, socially, and scientifically in most areas of North America. Highly adaptable and now living in close proximity to humans in many areas, white-tailed deer are both the face of nature and the source of conflict with motorists, home-owners, and agricultural producers. Capturing the diverse aspects of white-tailed deer research, Biology and Management of White-tailed Deer is a reflection of the resources invested in the study of the species’ effects on ecosystems, predator-prey dynamics, population regulation, foraging behavior, and browser physiology.
