LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Breeding behavior of female white‐tailed deer relative to conception: Evidence for female mate choice

Photo from wikipedia

Abstract Female white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are thought to choose between two behavioral strategies to maximize the quality of potential mates: sit and wait, characterized by concentrating activity within a… Click to show full abstract

Abstract Female white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are thought to choose between two behavioral strategies to maximize the quality of potential mates: sit and wait, characterized by concentrating activity within a restricted area, and excursive behavior, characterized by increased activity and excursions outside the home range. As movement patterns may influence conception, our goal was to examine the patterns of female white‐tailed deer movements to evaluate which breeding strategy was employed. We equipped 36 female white‐tailed deer with GPS collars from August 2013 to December 2015. We found that movement rate and probability of activity were greatest near the peak of the breeding season, and we observed increases in both metrics during the 40 days prior to estimated conception. Peak size of home range and core area occurred in the days surrounding conception. We found that 11 deer performed an excursion, ranging from 43 days before until 36 days after conception, with the peak probability of being outside of an individual home range occurring 1 day prior to conception. Our results suggest that female white‐tailed deer may attempt to maximize the quality of their mates by advertising availability for breeding through excursive behaviors just prior to entering estrus.

Keywords: deer; conception; white tailed; tailed deer; female white; home range

Journal Title: Ecology and Evolution
Year Published: 2017

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.