![Sample our Environment & Agriculture journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5934/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Environment-Agriculture.jpg"})
Abstract
Female roe deer tend to live in mixed-sex groups in winter but in solitary manner on reduced home ranges in spring. This tendency is commonly related in the literature to the rearing of hiding fawns. We studied the socio-spatial relationships between six female roe deer, introduced at 1 year of age into a partly wooded 14.2-ha enclosure. Animals were monitored with GPS telemetry collars for a period of 3 years, a male being added at the end of the 2nd year. Females did not share large overlapping home ranges. In the absence of any male and offspring, they spread out in May–June (birthing season) and in July-August (rutting season). During these seasons, the size and overlap of their home ranges were minimal, while the mean distance between the arithmetic centres of their respective locations reached its maximum value and was greater than expected under the hypothesis that the females positioned their ranges independently of one another. Related females were not preferentially associated beyond 2 years of age. Moreover, the introduction of a male affected this spatial organisation only slightly. Overall, the socio-spatial organisation of female roe deer appears to be almost independent of their reproductive status, and very similar to that of males, as is the case in a number of other small-bodied ruminants.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We dedicate this paper to Peter Winterton (1953–2016), who checked the English language of our manuscripts for more than 25 years. Stephen Dodd did this work for the present paper, and we gratefully thank him. We are also grateful to the Midi-Pyrénées Region for financial support given to the construction of the experimental station. The authors declare that the experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed (France).
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.