Occupancy modeling of habitat use by white-tailed deer after more than a decade of exclusion in the boreal forest

The exclusion of herbivores in forest areas is a strategy used to reduce the impact of selective browsing and increase the regeneration of desired plant species. On Anticosti Island (Québec, Canada), selective browsing by white-tailed deer prevents the regeneration of balsam fir – white birch forests leading to their conversion into white spruce forests. Large deer exclosures were established for ca . 10 to 12 years in clear-cuts with patches of residual forest from 2001 to 2006 to assist in the natural regeneration of fir stands and to provide shelter and food resources for deer. Our objective was to assess how deer use exclosures after the removal of fences according to their spatial configuration and habitat composition. We randomly distributed automatic cameras for periods of 14 days during summer in six exclosures ranging from 3.1 to 11.2 km2 (n=25 cameras per exclosure) from which deer were reduced for 10 to 12 years. We compared candidate occupancy models that included spatial co...

在林区排除草食动物是一项用以降低选择性啃食影响、提升目标植物物种自然更新效率的常用策略。加拿大魁北克省安蒂科斯蒂岛（Anticosti Island）上，白尾鹿（white-tailed deer）的选择性啃食会阻碍香脂冷杉（balsam fir）-白桦（white birch）林的自然更新，进而导致该林分向白云杉（white spruce）林转化。2001年至2006年间，研究人员在带有小片残留林分的皆伐迹地（clear-cuts）中搭建大型鹿类围栏保护区（exclosures），布设时长约10至12年，以助力冷杉林分的自然更新，并为鹿类提供庇护场所与食物资源。本研究旨在评估围栏拆除后，鹿类如何依据保护区的空间构型与生境组成来利用这些区域。研究团队于夏季在6处面积介于3.1至11.2平方千米的原保护区内随机布设自动相机（automatic cameras），每处布设25台相机，单次布设周期为14天；这些保护区已实施10至12年的鹿类种群管控工作。我们对比了包含空间协同参数的候选占用模型（occupancy models）……