Global Ecology and Conservation (Oct 2023)
Relative abundance of Roe deer (Capreolus pygargus) related to overstory structure and understory food resources in Northeast China
Abstract
Large herbivores are particularly susceptible to changes in quantity and quality of forage resources, in turn constraining populations of large and threatened carnivores. Key prey species for Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) and leopards (P. pardus orientalis), Siberian roe deer (Capreolus pygargus) have a spatial distribution which is greatly influenced by habitat quality across topographic regions. In this study, we used 138 camera-trap stations to record the abundance and distribution of Siberian roe deer in the mountains (n = 88) and valleys (n = 50) of the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, and we examined the impact of overstory structure and understory food resources on the relative abundance index (RAI) of the deer. We use generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) with negative binomial distributions, with the response variable of RAI of either of deer on the mountain or in the valley. We included canopy cover (CC), tree richness (TR) and basal area (BA) from overstory structure and mass of shrub layer (SM), mass of grasses and sedges (GM), forbs mass (FoM), ferns mass (FeM) and understory mass (UM) from understory food as fixed effects. We found that RAI of roe deer was significantly higher for the mountain than the valley. For the mountain, BA, TR and FoM were found to have a significant positive effect on roe deer, while CC showed a negative effect. In the valley, BA had a significant positive effect on roe deer, while SM showed a negative effect. Roe deer appeared to trade-off overstory structure with understory food resources, especially BA and FoM, which may lead them to prefer mountains over valleys in the national park. These findings will assist in understanding the distribution of roe deer populations in Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, and may suggest more effective conservation and management strategies for the forest ecosystems of Northeast China.
