Takada Hayato, Nakamura Keita
Mount Fuji Research Institute, Yamanashi Prefecture Government, 5597-1 Kenmarubi, Kamiyoshida, Fujiyoshida 403-0005, Yamanashi, Japan.
Wildlife Management Center, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 3-5-8 Saiwaicho, Fuchu 183-8509, Tokyo, Japan.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Jun 29;14(13):1924. doi: 10.3390/ani14131924.
It has been known that harvesting by humans strongly influences individual within-home range habitat selection of many deer species; however, little is known about the effect of harvesting on coarse-scale habitat selection (i.e., spatial distribution). We examined the summer spatial distribution of sika deer in relation to human harvesting and other factors, such as human residences, forage abundance, and cover, using pellet group counts at Mount Fuji, central Japan, in 2018. In the study area, harvesting is conducted at medium elevation areas throughout the year, but not at high or low elevation areas where access is difficult or harvesting is prohibited. Spatial distribution of deer was significantly biased to non-harvesting areas and far from residential areas, suggesting that they avoid riskier spaces by establishing a landscape of fear. High-quality food resources (deciduous broad-leaved trees and forbs) were more abundant in harvesting areas than in non-harvesting areas, suggesting that foraging pressure by deer reduce them. However, there were no differences in abundances of more fibrous dwarf bamboo between harvesting and non-harvesting areas, and spatial distribution of deer was significantly biased to higher dwarf bamboo abundance areas, suggesting that the dwarf bamboo is an alternative food resource in non-harvesting areas where supplies of high-quality food were limited. Our results suggest that human harvesting pressure and residences shifted the spatial distribution of deer from the montane forests to subalpine/alpine zones, which may increase damage to vulnerable ecosystems due to severe foraging pressure.
众所周知，人类狩猎对许多鹿种在其家域内的栖息地选择有很大影响；然而，关于狩猎对粗尺度栖息地选择（即空间分布）的影响却知之甚少。我们于2018年在日本中部的富士山，通过粪便颗粒计数，研究了梅花鹿夏季的空间分布与人类狩猎及其他因素（如人类居住地、草料丰富度和遮蔽物）之间的关系。在研究区域，全年在中等海拔地区进行狩猎，但在难以进入或禁止狩猎的高海拔或低海拔地区则不进行。鹿的空间分布显著偏向非狩猎区且远离居民区，这表明它们通过建立恐惧景观来避开风险更高的空间。高质量的食物资源（落叶阔叶树和草本植物）在狩猎区比非狩猎区更为丰富，这表明鹿的觅食压力使其减少。然而，在狩猎区和非狩猎区之间，纤维含量更高的矮竹的丰度没有差异，且鹿的空间分布显著偏向矮竹丰度更高的地区，这表明在高质量食物供应有限的非狩猎区，矮竹是一种替代食物资源。我们的研究结果表明，人类狩猎压力和居住地使鹿的空间分布从山地森林转移到亚高山/高山地带，这可能会因严重的觅食压力而增加对脆弱生态系统的破坏。
