Prediction of the visit and occupy of the sika deer (Cervus nippon) during the summer season using a virtual ecological approach.

Prediction of the spaces used by animals is an important component of wildlife management, but requires detailed information such as animal visit and occupy in a short span of the target species. Computational simulation is often employed as an effective and economical approach. In this study, the visit and occupy of sika deer (Cervus nippon) during the plant growing season were predicted using a virtual ecological approach. A virtual ecological model was established to predict the visit and occupy of sika deer based on the indices of their food resources. The simulation results were validated against data collected from a camera trapping system. The study was conducted from May to November in 2018 in the northern Kanto region of Japan. The predictive performance of the model using the kernel normalized difference vegetation index (kNDVI) was relatively high in the earlier season, whereas that of the model using landscape structure was relatively low. The predictive performance of the model using combination of the kNDVI and landscape structure was relatively high in the later season. Unfortunately, visit and occupy of sika deer could not predict in November. The use of both models, depending on the month, achieved the best performance to predict the movements of sika deer.

Importance of Host Abundance and Microhabitat in Tick Abundance.

To reduce the risk of zoonoses, it is necessary to understand the infection process, including the ecology of animals and vectors (i.e., the 'One Health' approach). In temperate climates, ticks are the major vectors of zoonoses, so factors determining their abundance, such as host mammal abundance and microhabitat conditions, should be clarified. Sika deer (Cervus nippon) are a major tick host and are rapidly expanding their distribution in Japan. We established 12 plots along a gradient of sika deer abundance in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. We monitored the occurrence of mammal species with camera traps and sampled questing ticks on a monthly basis by flagging along three transects (center of a trail, forest edge, and forest interior) at each site from April to November 2018. The camera traps recorded 12 mammal species, predominantly sika deer. Five Haemaphysalis species and three Ixodes species were sampled. The numbers of ticks sampled were explained by the photographic frequency of sika deer, and partly by that of other mammal species, depending on tick species and their developmental stages. The numbers of sampled adult and nymphal ticks were the highest at the forest edge, where vegetation cover was greatest. Thus, vegetation management in tick habitats and the control of sika deer populations may reduce tick abundance.

Plant community recovery from intense deer grazing depends on reduction of graminoids and the time after exclosure installation in a semi-natural grassland.

Exclosures that exclude large herbivores are effective tools for the protection and restoration of grazed plant communities. However, previous studies have shown that the installation of an exclosure does not ensure plant community recovery. Our study aimed to determine the effects of the domination of unpalatable plants and the timing of exclosure installation on the plant community recovery process in montane grassland overgrazed by sika deer (Cervus nippon) in Japan. In this study we compared plant species composition and their cover with inside and outside exclosures installed at different times. Furthermore, we also compared them with those in 1981, when density of sika deer was very low. We used quadrats inside and outside fenced areas established in 2010 and 2011 to record both the cover and the height of species in each quadrat between 2011 and 2015. Plant cover, with the exception of graminoid species, increased in later years in all treatments. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) plots showed significantly differentiated treatment trends. The species composition within the 2010 fenced area gradually shifted to greater similarity with the species composition reported in 1981. The plant community in the 2011 fenced area was slower to recover. Compositions of plant communities outside the fenced areas hardly changed from 2011 to 2015. Chao's dissimilarity index decreased over time between the plant community surveyed between 2011 and 2015 and the past plant community in 1981 within the exclosures, and was higher in the 2011 fenced area than in the 2010 fenced area. In conclusion, we show that the reduction of graminoids and the time after exclosure installation were important for plant community recovery from deer grazing damage. A delay in exclosure installation of one year could result in a delay in plant community recovery of more than one year.

Spatial heterogeneity in the carrying capacity of sika deer in Japan.

Carrying capacity is 1 driver of wildlife population dynamics. Although in previous studies carrying capacity was considered to be a fixed entity, it may differ among locations due to environmental variation. The factors underlying variability in carrying capacity, however, have rarely been examined. Here, we investigated spatial heterogeneity in the carrying capacity of Japanese sika deer ( Cervus nippon ) from 2005 to 2014 in Yamanashi Prefecture, central Japan (mesh with grid cells of 5.5×4.6 km) by state-space modeling. Both carrying capacity and density dependence differed greatly among cells. Estimated carrying capacities ranged from 1.34 to 98.4 deer/km 2 . According to estimated population dynamics, grid cells with larger proportions of artificial grassland and deciduous forest were subject to lower density dependence and higher carrying capacity. We conclude that population dynamics of ungulates may vary spatially through spatial variation in carrying capacity and that the density level for controlling ungulate abundance should be based on the current density level relative to the carrying capacity for each area.