Displacement Effects of Conservation Grazing on Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) Spatial Behaviour.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Weiss, Fabio Michler, Frank Uwe Gillich, Benjamin Tillmann, Jörg Ciuti, Simone Heurich, Marco Rieger, Siegfried
Abstract	Conservation grazing uses semi-feral or domesticated herbivores to limit encroachment in open areas and to promote biodiversity. However, we are still unaware of its effects on wild herbivores. This study investigates the influence of herded sheep and goats on red deer (Cervus elaphus) spatial behavior by testing three a-priori hypotheses: (i) red deer are expected to avoid areas used by livestock, as well as adjacent areas, when livestock are present, albeit (ii) red deer increase the use of these areas when sheep and goats are temporarily absent and (iii) there is a time-lagged disruption in red deer spatial behavior when conservation grazing practice ends. Using GPS-telemetry data on red deer from a German heathland area, we modelled their use of areas grazed by sheep and goats, using mixed-effect logistic regression. Additionally, we developed seasonal resource selection functions (use-availability design) to depict habitat selection by red deer before, during, and after conservation grazing. Red deer used areas less during conservation grazing throughout all times of the day and there was no compensatory use during nighttime. This effect mostly persisted within 21 days after conservation grazing. Effects on habitat selection of red deer were detectable up to 3000 meters away from the conservation grazing sites, with no signs of either habituation or adaption. For the first time, we demonstrate that conservation grazing can affect the spatio-temporal behavior of wild herbivores. Our findings are relevant for optimizing landscape and wildlife management when conservation grazing is used in areas where wild herbivores are present.
Related Links	https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC9519651&blobtype=pdf
ISSN	0364152X
Journal	Environmental Management [Environ Manage]
Volume Number	70
DOI	10.1007/s00267-022-01697-6
PubMed Central reference number	PMC9519651
Issue Number	5
PubMed reference number	35994055
e-ISSN	14321009
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2022-08-22
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. © The Author(s) 2022
Subject Keyword	Targeted grazing Heathland conservation Dry grassland Wildlife Habitat selection Resource selection functions
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Ecology Pollution Global and Planetary Change