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High red deer density depresses body mass of roe deer fawns

  • Population ecology - Original Paper
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Abstract

Many previous studies have pointed out that, when resources are limited, the potential for competition should be high among sympatric species that display overlaps in habitat and nutritional niches. However, reliable evidence of competition between red deer (Cervus elaphus) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) has not been yet reported for life history traits directly measuring performance such as body mass, reproduction, or survival. From long-term monitoring of deer populations in the reserve of La Petite Pierre (France), we measured the sex-specific responses of roe deer fawn body mass to changes in red deer density after accounting for possible confounding effects of date of shooting, climatic conditions, and roe deer density. As expected under the hypothesis of competition, red deer density in a given year had a marked negative influence on body mass of roe deer fawns born the same year and the following year. Fawn mass of roe deer males and females responded in similar ways to changes in red deer density. Our study provides the first evidence of a negative response of roe deer performance to high red deer density.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by the Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage (ONCFS). The national reserve is managed by the ONCFS and the Office National des Forêts. We are grateful to wildlife technicians, foresters and many volunteers for help in counts. We are also grateful to hunters for having taken measurements on roe deer fawns. We thank Christophe Bonenfant, Mathieu Garel, and the members of the GROS research group for stimulating discussions. Finally, we thank Atle Mysterud and one anonymous reviewer for their comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unité Mixte de Recherche no. 5558, Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, Université Lyon 1, 43 boulevard du 11 novembre 1918, 696220, Villeurbanne Cedex, France

    Emmanuelle Richard & Jean-Michel Gaillard

  2. Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage, Centre National d’Etudes et de Recherches Appliquées, Cervidés Sanglier, 1 place Exelmans, 55000, Bar Le Duc, France

    Sonia Saïd, Jean-Luc Hamann & François Klein

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  1. Emmanuelle Richard
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  2. Jean-Michel Gaillard
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  3. Sonia Saïd
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  4. Jean-Luc Hamann
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  5. François Klein
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Correspondence to Jean-Michel Gaillard.

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Communicated by Jörg Ganzhorn.

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Richard, E., Gaillard, JM., Saïd, S. et al. High red deer density depresses body mass of roe deer fawns. Oecologia 163, 91–97 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1538-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1538-z

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