Moll Remington J, McRoberts Jon T, Millspaugh Joshua J, Wiskirchen Kevyn H, Sumners Jason A, Isabelle Jason L, Keller Barbara J, Montgomery Robert A
Department of Natural Resources and the Environment University of New Hampshire Durham NH USA.
Wildlife Biology Program, W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation University of Montana Missoula MT USA.
Ecol Evol. 2021 Mar 9;11(9):3685-3695. doi: 10.1002/ece3.7354. eCollection 2021 May.
Despite the key roles that dispersal plays in individual animal fitness and meta-population gene flow, it remains one of the least understood behaviors in many species. In large mammalian herbivores, dispersals might span long distances and thereby influence landscape-level ecological processes, such as infectious disease spread. Here, we describe and analyze an exceptional long-distance dispersal by an adult white-tailed deer () in the central United States. We also conducted a literature survey to compare the dispersal to previous studies. This dispersal was remarkable for its length, duration, and the life history stage of the dispersing individual. Dispersal is typical of juvenile deer seeking to establish postnatal home ranges, but this dispersal was undertaken by an adult male (age = 3.5). This individual dispersed ~300 km over a 22-day period by moving, on average, 13.6 km/day and achieving a straight-line distance of ~215 km, which was ~174 km longer than any other distance recorded for an adult male deer in our literature survey. During the dispersal, which occurred during the hunting season, the individual crossed a major river seven times, an interstate highway, a railroad, and eight state highways. Movements during the dispersal were faster (mean = 568.1 m/h) and more directional than those during stationary home range periods before and after the dispersal (mean = 56.9 m/h). Likewise, movements during the dispersal were faster (mean = 847.8 m/h) and more directional at night than during the day (mean = 166.4 m/h), when the individual frequently sheltered in forest cover. This natural history event highlights the unpredictable nature of dispersal and has important implications for landscape-level processes such as chronic wasting disease transmission in cervids. More broadly, our study underscores how integrating natural history observations with modern technology holds promise for understanding potentially high impact but rarely recorded ecological events.
尽管扩散在个体动物适应性和集合种群基因流动中发挥着关键作用，但它仍是许多物种中最不为人所理解的行为之一。在大型哺乳食草动物中，扩散可能跨越很长距离，从而影响景观层面的生态过程，如传染病传播。在此，我们描述并分析了美国中部一只成年白尾鹿（）一次异常的长距离扩散。我们还进行了文献调查，将此次扩散与之前的研究进行比较。这次扩散在长度、持续时间以及扩散个体的生活史阶段方面都很显著。扩散是幼年鹿寻求建立出生后家园范围的典型行为，但这次扩散是由一只成年雄性鹿（年龄 = 3.5岁）进行的。这只鹿在22天内扩散了约300公里，平均每天移动13.6公里，直线距离约为215公里，这比我们文献调查中记录的成年雄性鹿的任何其他距离都长约174公里。在狩猎季节发生的这次扩散过程中，该个体七次穿过一条主要河流、一条州际公路、一条铁路和八条州级公路。扩散期间的移动速度（平均 = 568.1米/小时）比扩散前后固定家园范围期间的移动速度（平均 = 56.9米/小时）更快，且更具方向性。同样，扩散期间夜间的移动速度（平均 = 847.8米/小时）比白天（平均 = 166.4米/小时）更快，且更具方向性，白天该个体经常躲在森林覆盖处。这一自然历史事件凸显了扩散的不可预测性，对诸如鹿类慢性消耗性疾病传播等景观层面的过程具有重要意义。更广泛地说，我们的研究强调了将自然历史观察与现代技术相结合对于理解可能具有高影响力但很少被记录的生态事件的前景。
