Deer Home Ranges and Movements
In 2003, two of five radio-collared yearling bucks showed dispersal movements. Both males stayed where they dispersed to, one was shot in the fall by a hunter, and one is still alive. The locations showing their dispersals are below.
Home ranges were calculated using 95%mcp (minimum convex polygon). With this method, all locations for each deer during the rut are plotted and 5% of the outliers are removed. A polygon is made by connecting the outermost remaining locations. A minimum of 30 locations were used for each home range calculation.
All maps courtesy of Lesa Skuldt
Data Analysis Results
Home range and movement behavior (2003-2004)
Our analysis of deer home range and movement behavior has provided us with the following results:
- Bucks and does have extremely small annual home ranges in our study area (bucks=0.61 miles squared, does=0.31 miles squared)
- Bucks are not moving long distances during the rut or during the deer gun season, as previously predicted.
- No adult bucks or does have dispersed which is consistent with predictions.
- 69% of yearling bucks (9 of 13) dispersed an average of 4.3 miles. Five of these dispersals occurred in late spring and early summer and the other four occurred during the rut in the fall.
- 0.05% of yearling does (1 of 21) have dispersed. Between May and December of 2004, one yearling doe from Arena moved into northern Illinois and returned within 15 miles of its former home range. She still has not established a permanent home range. During these unusual movements, she traveled a cumulative distance of >250 miles.
- 54% of yearling bucks (7 of 13) and 52% of yearling does (11 of 21) made exploratory movements outside their natal home range but later returned. Average total distance moved was 6.0 miles for bucks and 9.8 miles for does. Most of these movements occurred in late spring and early summer and some of the bucks later dispersed.
More results coming soon!
