Rangeland Ecology & Management

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DOE-FAWN BEHAVIOUR FOLLOWING PARTURITION IN MULE DEER, ODOCOILEUS HEMINIONUS, ACROSS TREATED AND UNTREATED HABITAT TYPES
Author
Larsen, Royce
Tietje, William
Pritchard, Chuck
Sinton, Steve
Work, George
Cox, Robert D.
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2014
Body

Doe-fawn behaviour was studied from parturition to 14 days of age in a free-ranging population of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in northcentral New Mexico. Mechanical treatments of gambel oak (Quercus gambelii ) and mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus montanus) were implemented to improve browse quality and quantity. Fawns were bedded 91% of total sampling periods and selected mature brush species for bed sites during 88% of those periods. The vegetation species with the highest use for bed site selection was untreated gambel oak (50%). Gambel oak was used 3.3 times more than any other vegetation present. Untreated vegetation was selected for bed sites 4.2 times more often than treated vegetation. Fawns displayed hider phase behaviour characteristics for the first 10 days of life and were mostly inactive unless visited by their dam. Siblings remained lying separately 77% of the time and were maintained individually by the dam unless nursing. Dams were present with fawns 35% of the time and most dam-fawn interactions took place between 00:00 and 04:00. Nursing bouts were observed most often (6.1% to 7.8%) between 00:00 to 04:00 and 04:00 to 08:00. Nursing bouts were observed twice as much during dark hours 47% as during hours with sunlight 23%. Mean nursing bout length was 2.04 minutes, but notably decreased in frequency as fawn age approached 14 days. Fawns were observed standing and moving 1.8 times more in the dark (12.5%) than during light hours (7%). Fawns accompanied dams while the dams browsed on low growing vegetation at approximately 10 days of age.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Orlando, FL