Estimating 24-h Habitat Use Patterns of White-Tailed Deer from Diurnal Use

✍ Scribed by Brian J. Kernohan; Jonathan A. Jenks; David E. Naugle; Joshua J. Millspaugh

• Book ID: 102588386
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 60 KB
• Volume: 48
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0301-4797
• DOI: 10.1006/jema.1996.0079

✦ Synopsis

We compared diurnal and 24-h habitat use patterns of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) at Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge, South Dakota from 1 January to 20 December 1993. Deer were sampled during two periods, diurnal (i.e. 0800 to 1959 h) and 24-h to determine if 24-h habitat use could be estimated from diurnal use patterns at the population level. No differences between diurnal and 24-h use were detected (P=0•101) during winter, spring, summer, or fall, indicating that 24-h habitat use could be estimated (r 2 =0•95, P<0.001) from diurnal patterns when habitats were combined even during periods of intense unpredicted human disturbance (i.e. fall hunting with approx. 12 hunters/km 2 ).