SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL PATTERNS IN WHITE-TAILED DEER FAWN SURVIVAL AND CAUSE-SPECIFIC MORTALITY.
Author | : Tess Gingery |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : |
Release | : 2018 |
ISBN-10 | : OCLC:1038442317 |
ISBN-13 | : |
Rating | : 4/5 (17 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: Juvenile survival may be the most critical component of large herbivore population growth, but how neonate survival changes over time and space is not fully understood. Neonate survival rates are influenced by maternal care, site-specific differences, and are generally characterized by year-to-year variation. Sources of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawn mortality across North America include predation, natural causes (excluding predation), and both direct and indirect human-caused mortality. The relative frequency of these causes indicates which sources most affect neonate survival and can be easily compared among studies. We used a meta-analysis approach to elucidate spatial patterns in fawn survival at a landscape-scale across North America. However, comparing survival rates across time is not possible when confounded by spatial variation. Therefore, we investigated how fawn survival varied across time by conducting a neonate survival study in central Pennsylvania to compare a current estimate of neonate survival to previous estimates for central Pennsylvania in 20002001. Furthermore, because pre-weaned neonates (