Is supplementary feeding essential for red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Hungary?

Katona, Krisztián and Terhes, Attila and Bartucz, Kálmán and Szemethy, László (2013) Is supplementary feeding essential for red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Hungary? In: “Modern aspects of sustainable management of game population” Proceedings of 2nd International Symposium on Hunting, 17-20 October 2013, Novi Sad, Serbia.

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Abstract

Practical deer management requires understandingthe relationship between the quantity and quality of the available food and resource use by deer in the habitat. Although red deer (Cervus elaphus) primarily forages on woody plant species from the shrub layer, supplementation by non-browse food is very common among game managers. Provision of extra food in addition to the natural supply has significant costs. Consequently, it is important to know how essential this feeding may be for populations of game like red deer. In our study area we determined the consumption by red deer of two feed types (maize silage and apple pomace which is the residue from pressing apples) commonly offered at feeding plots in Hungary during the winter. Additionally, we assessed the minimum distance for these feeders to have an attractive effect. We used microhistological analysis of faeces and rumen content and macroscopic observation of markers mixed into the food. Based on our analyses, 20 to 90% of the red deer (depending on the date and method of investigation) had eaten the supplemental food. However, the proportion of supplementary food in the red deer droppings collected in the immediate surroundings of the feeding plots was always very low (<10%). The detected range of effect of the feeding plots (the distance from which deer came to the feeder) was typically around 1.7 km, but no more than 3.2 km. All this indicates that only a part of the red deer population visits the feeding plots, and from short distances from the forest. Thus, our data strongly suggests that supplementary food did not necessarily play an important role in the diet of the red deer individuals regularly visiting these sites. Managers considering supplementary feeding should evaluate the quality of the forest area because the natural food supply can greatly influence the use of the feeding plots.

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