Decreased movements of adult female mule deer during winter in arid southwestern North America
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22201/ib.20078706e.2024.95.5478Keywords:
Energy conservation, Movements, Mule deer, New MexicoAbstract
Deer in northern temperate environments show behavioral and physiological adaptations to conserve energy during winter, including decreased movements. Whether these behaviors persist in warmer temperate environments such as the arid Southwest has received little consideration. We compared daily movements as estimated by continuous-time movement models and minimum subdaily (4 h) straight-line movements of adult female mule deer between winter and spring-autumn seasons in south-central New Mexico. Deer moved less during winter daily (2.90 vs. 4.34 km/d) and subdaily (302 vs. 409 m). Similarly, for deer for which movement data for successive seasons were available, movements between successive seasons were less during the winter (daily = -1.05 km/d; subdaily = -91 m) than the following or preceding spring-autumn. Our results support conservation of decreased movements during winter in the less extreme winters of the arid Southwest. Because some proximate stimuli (i.e., deep snow, very cold
temperatures) associated with energy conservation behaviors are lacking in the arid Southwest, it is clear that our results further support low forage quality and availability being the primary drivers of this behavior.
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