Fawn bedsite selection by a large ungulate living in a peri-urban area

Abstract

AbstractHuman populations continue to grow at an unprecedented rate, along with the associated anthropogenic footprint on wildlife habitats. As a result, human-wildlife conflict in expanding peri-urban and urban areas is of increasing concern. Empirical data from wildlife research carried out within human dominated landscapes are key to understanding the effects of human pressures on wildlife ecology and behaviour, exploring wildlife behavioural flexibility (or phenotypic plasticity), and informing wildlife management decisions. Here, we explored how female fallow deer (Dama dama) and their fawns responded to human and dog presence during the birthing period in the largest walled urban park in Europe, which receives 10 million visitors along with their dogs every year. We collected data on 481 bedsites utilised by 285 neonate fawns across three consecutive fawning seasons, gathered fine-scale data on humans (and dogs) space use, and built Resource Selection Functions at multiple spatial scales. We found that, when choosing bedsites to give birth and leave fawns unattended, fallow deer mothers significantly avoided hotspots of park visitors on foot (and their dogs) along the hiking trail network, maintaining a distance of at least ∼200m. Bedsites were also unlikely to be in close proximity, within 50 meters, of paved roads used by vehicle traffic. Additionally, fallow deer mothers were found to select for dense understory vegetation for bedsites, providing low visibility to conceal their offspring. Our results provide detailed insights into how female fallow deer adapt their spatial and habitat selection for bedsites during the fawning season in response to human activities, and provide clear indications to wildlife managers to preserve traditional fawning sites in order to alleviate human-wildlife conflict during a critical period of the deer annual biological cycle.