Book Description

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have adapted to and thrive in highly fragmented exurban habitats. Consequently, managers face new challenges dealing with deer population control in areas where traditional harvest regimes may no longer be practical or effective. Little is known about exurban deer ecology or about deer responses to controlled hunts, the latter of which is the most common method used for exurban deer population control. My study investigated spatial ecology and responses to controlled hunts of an exurban deer population residing on Fair Hill Natural Resource Management Area in Cecil County, Maryland. Fair Hill is an exurban park bordered by residential development and agricultural areas, and serves as a potential source for deer-human conflicts. From June 2004--January 2006, I collected approximately 37,000 telemetry locations on 66 collared female white-tailed deer to investigate seasonal home range sizes, home range fidelity, and hourly movement rates. Additionally, I monitored all deer before, during, and after a controlled shotgun hunt to investigate deer responses to hunting pressure. Average adaptive kernel home range sizes ranged from 8.1 ha--21.7 ha and 70.9 ha--144.5 ha among seasons at the 50% and 95% spatial scales, respectively. Average home range sizes followed a general increasing trend from the fawning through post-hunting season. Seasonal home range overlap differed by season at the 50% and 95% spatial scales, with the least overlap occurring between the post-hunting and fawning seasons (50%: x¯ = 19.4%, 95%: x¯ = 33.3%). Circadian activity rates varied among seasons, with dusk movements being greatest in all seasons. Average diurnal activity was greatest during the middle (1 Oct--30 Nov; x¯ = 65.7 m/hr) and late (1 Dec--31 Jan; x¯ = 67.8 m/hr) seasons and least during the post-hunting (1 Feb--30 Apr; x¯ = 46.2 m/hr). I found significant spatial and temporal responses of white-tailed deer to hunting pressure. Deer in non-refuge areas moved significantly more during (x¯ = 560.1 m) than either before (x¯ = 382.5 m) or after (x¯ = 417.5 m) the controlled hunts, whereas movement of deer in refuge areas did not change in response to the controlled hunt. Onstand and off-stand movements, defined as movements occurring while hunters were onstand or off-stand respectively, were greater in non-refuge (x¯ = 408.9 m and x¯ = 456.4 m) than refuge (x¯ = 261.2m and x¯ = 307.4 m) areas. Increased use of refuge areas in response to the controlled hunt resulted in a 20%--25% decrease in the percentage of deer available for harvest after the hunt. Consequently, only 50% of monitored deer remained available for harvest by the end of the hunt. My results suggest that to increase the efficacy of the current controlled hunt design at Fair Hill, managers should attempt to eliminate areas currently serving as refuge areas and consider changing hunt hours to include the dusk activity period.