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Time to leave? Immediate response of roe deer to experimental disturbances using playbacks

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Abstract

Despite frequent exposure to disturbances or threats, some species seem to be successful in human-dominated landscapes. In order to better understand how these species respond to disturbance linked to human activities, we studied the immediate response of roe deer to playback experiments conducted in an agricultural landscape where human activities are omnipresent and hunting is frequent. During two periods of contrasted hunting risk, we performed playback experiments (with dog barks or tractor engine noises) with experimenters that were either stationary or walked towards the deer. We modelled the probability of fleeing immediately after the start of the experiment. The probability of fleeing was around 0.3 when experimenters were located 100 m away from the deer and did not move but was greater when the experimenters were initially closer to the animal or approached closer to the animal during the experiment. Surprisingly, the responses of roe deer did not vary between periods of contrasting risk or in relation to the type of sound played. This study provides experimental evidence of a high level of reactivity of this sedentary species when confronted with disturbance. We argue that this may partly explain its success in human-dominated environments, allowing it to exploit the rich feeding resources provided by agricultural landscapes in a relatively safe way.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the French National Institute for Research in Agronomy (INRA), the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (grant number 2010-BLAN-1718-BAMBI). S.P. was supported by a PhD grant from the University Montpellier II. We are grateful to B. Lourtet for habitat map digitalisation, to B. Lourtet, D. Picot, H. Verheyden, N. Bonnot, P. Aury, M. Coudel, S. Serre, S. Le Saout and S. Klein for their precious participation in fieldwork and experiments, to N. Cebe, J.L. Rames, and J. Merlet for help with deer captures, to C. Monestier and N. Bonnot for exchanges about data and their precious advice. Two anonymous reviewers made comments that helped us to improve the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Simon Chamaillé-Jammes.

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Padié, S., Morellet, N., Cargnelutti, B. et al. Time to leave? Immediate response of roe deer to experimental disturbances using playbacks. Eur J Wildl Res 61, 871–879 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-015-0964-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-015-0964-y

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