Native red deer and introduced chamois: foraging habits and competition in a subalpine meadow-spruce forest area

0164184 - UBO-W 20010036 RIV CZ eng J - Journal Article
Homolka, Miloslav - Heroldová, Marta
Native red deer and introduced chamois: foraging habits and competition in a subalpine meadow-spruce forest area.
Folia zoologica. Roč. 50, č. 2 (2001), s. 89-98. ISSN 0139-7893. E-ISSN 1573-1189
R&D Projects: GA ČR GA206/97/0172; GA AV ČR KSK6005114
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z6093917
Keywords : Cervus elaphus * Rupicapra rupicapra * foraging strategy
Subject RIV: EG - Zoology
Impact factor: 0.287, year: 2001

In the higher altitude parts of the Jeseniky Mountains (1100-1490 m a. s. l.) high density of red deer and chamois populations had a significant damaging impact on the vegetation structure and caused problems in forestry and nature conservation management. In terms of their trophic requirements we compared native red deer and introduced chamois feeding niches width and overlap (microscopical analyses of faeces and rumen content). Despite the different theoretical feeding specialization of the two species, red deer and chamois consumed throughout the year almost the same diet, and their feeding niches showed extensive overlap during all seasons. In the environment with highly simplified plant communities, neither species had any possibility to follow its specific foraging strategy. In their diets, grass-like plants unambiguously dominated during the whole year (growing season: 92-98% of volume, winter: 52-55% of volume). The plant composition of the diet corresponded to the diet of typical grazers, not to the diet of feeding opportunists. A tow proportion of forbs and broadleaved woody plants in the vegetation and also in the diets of red deer and chamois documents the fact that these important sources of food are limited and it leads to competition for these items between the two species. The heavy impact on forbs and broad leaved woody plants results in low diversity of the herb layer and almost complete absence of the shrub layer.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0061407