Dependence of individual foraging area on group size in spotted deer Cervus nippon (Temm., 1838) during the period with permanent snow cover

Abstract

Assessment of the daily foraging areas of spotted deer that belonged to groups of different sizes was performed in the Ussuriiskii Nature Reserve (Primorskii krai) during the period with permanent snow cover. Calculations showed that the foraging area size per individual was inversely correlated to the number of individuals in the group. We hypothesized that large groups of Spotted deer are capable of more efficient use of the living range for foraging than the groups composed by smaller numbers of individuals.