Search

Data used for the study "Should I stay or should I go? Determinants of immediate and delayed movement responses of female red deer (Cervus elaphus) to drive hunts", accepted for publication in the journal Plos One. Abstract: Hunting can be used as a tool for wildlife management, through limitation of population densities and dissuading game from using sensitive areas. The success of these approaches requires in depth knowledge of prey movement. Indeed, movement decisions of game during hunting may affect the killing success of hunters as well as the subsequent location of surviving animals. We thus investigated red deer movement responses to drive hunts and their causal factors. We studied 34 hunting events in the National Estate of Chambord (France) and thereby provided a fine-scale characterization of the immediate and delayed movement responses of red deer to drive hunts. Red deer responded to drive hunts either by immediately fleeing the hunted area, or by initially remaining before ultimately fleeing after the hunters had departed. A few hours after the hunt, all individuals were located in distant areas (> 2 kilometres) from the hunted area. Immediate flight responses were less common when drive hunts occurred in areas with dense understorey. However, neither beater/dog densities nor site familiarity influenced the immediate flight decision. Following a drive hunt, red deer remained outside the hunted areas for periods twice as long compared to periods when no hunting occurred (34 hours vs. 17 hours). Such knowledge of game movement rates in response to drive hunts may help the development of informed management policy for hunted red deer populations.

International audience; Populations of wild herbivores have significantly increased in the last decades in the Northern hemisphere due to changes in farming practises and environmental management plans. This expansion has caused over- grazing, disruption of the physical properties of soil arising from animals stamping and standing and damage to bark and buds of target species. These animals also contribute to the functioning of forest ecosystems by dispersing plants and redistributing nutrients throughout their range. Epizoochory, the external transportation of seeds attached to skin appendages of animals (e.g., fur, feathers) is one of the main vehicles for seed dispersal. In this study, we examined the transportation of Xanthium strumarium L. diaspores with hook appendages by red deer (Cervus elaphus) on a hunting estate. The experimentation relies on the analysis of location data for hinds that have been captured and equipped with GPS collars and then released again in the National Estate of Chambord.; Les populations d’herbivores sauvages sont en nette augmentation depuis plusieurs décennies dans l’hémis- phère Nord en raison du changement des pratiques agricoles et des plans de gestion environnementaux. Cet essor est à l’origine de surpâturage, de perturbations physiques du sol par piétinement et labour du sol et de dégâts aux écorces et aux bourgeons d’essences objectif. Ces animaux contribuent aussi au fonctionne- ment des écosystèmes forestiers par la dispersion des plantes ou la redistribution des nutriments à l’échelle de leurs domaines vitaux. L’épizoochorie, transport externe de graines qui s’accrochent dans les phanères (par exemple pelage, plumage) des animaux, est un des principaux modes de dispersion des graines. Dans cette étude, nous nous sommes intéressés au transport des diaspores pourvues de crochets de Xanthium struma- rium L. par le cerf élaphe (Cervus elaphus) dans un domaine soumis à la chasse. L’expérimentation s’appuie sur l’analyse des données de localisation de biches capturées, équipées de colliers GPS et relâchées au sein du Domaine national de Chambord.

The slow-fast continuum describes how resource allocation constrains life-history strategies in many organisms. In plants, it is reflected by a trade-off at the leaf level between the rate of carbon assimilation and lifespan, the so-called Leaf Economics Spectrum (LES). However, it is still unclear how the LES is connected to the slow-fast syndrome, and reflects adaptation to climate. Here, we measured growth, morpho-physiological and life-history traits at both leaf and whole-plant levels in 384 natural accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana. We examined the extent to which the LES continuum parallels the slow-fast continuum, and compared trait variation to neutral genetic differentiation between lineages. We found that the LES is tightly linked to variation in whole-plant functioning, relative growth rate and life history. A genetic analysis further suggested that phenotypic differentiation is linked to the evolution of different slow-fast strategies in contrasted climates. Together, our findings shed light on the physiological bases of the slow-fast continuum, and its role for plant adaptation to climate.