Parasitism and grooming behavior of a natural white-tailed deer population in Alabama

We assessed responses in grooming behavior to ectoparasite densities in naturally occurring white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in southwest Alabama, and tested predictions of the stimulus-driven and programmed grooming models with respect to intraspecific body size and vigilance. Stimulus-driven grooming predicts greater tick densities would lead to an increase in grooming, whereas the programmed model predicts a higher rate of grooming would decrease tick densities. Within the programmed model, smaller individuals are predicted to groom more and host fewer ticks, and, due to increased vigilance, breeding males will groom less than females and bachelor males, and thus host more ticks during the rut. We used generalized linear models to determine males had a higher average tick density than females and exhibited complete separation of tick parasitism between non-rutting and rutting periods. Our results support the stimulus-driven grooming model as both fawns and yearlings had significantly higher d...