A rare 300 kilometer dispersal by an adult male white-tailed deer

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 (Odocoileus virginianus) 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 post-natal 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 a...