Contrasting the summer ecology of white-tailed deer inhabiting a forested and an agricultural landscape

Abstract: We compared habitat use, home range size, movements, and activity during summer between rural (12 animals km-2) and forest (<; 1 animal km-2) white-tailed deer populations, hypothesizing that competition for natural forage at high density would influence deer behaviour. Biomass of preferred forage at forester sites was 6 times greater in the forest than in the rural landscape. Forest deer avoided conifer and mixed stands, whereas rural deer tended to avoid stands of shade-tolerant hardwoods. Rural deer intensified their use of cultivated fields at night and ate a greater variety of native plants than forest conspecifics, including species rarely consumed by forest deer (e.g.,ferns). Rural deer used smaller home ranges but moved at a greater rate than forest counterparts. Activity pattern of deer did not differ between the two landscapes, with peaks at dawn and dusk. Our results suggest that rural deer adapted to the rarity of natural forage by exploiting agricultural crops.