Abstract
The current demographic expansion of red deer populations in the northern hemisphere has led to conflicts at the levels of health, the economy, and conservation. Potential tools for deer management include the delivery of contraceptives that impair reproduction in order to control populations or the delivery of treatments/vaccines in order to control health. To successfully implement these control strategies, it is necessary to develop suitable methods with which to deliver treatments to red deer in field settings. The objectives of this study were (i) to evaluate the specificity and palatability of three bait types—alfalfa, feed, and molasses-based—for red deer (Cervus elaphus) and (ii) to describe the constraints that limit or enhance the effectiveness of the bait deployment method—on the ground or in specific red deer feeders—for the oral delivery of treatments to red deer in Mediterranean ecosystems. Our results show that alfalfa baits are the least palatable but the most deer-selective type of bait, whereas feed and molasses baits are highly palatable but low specific (mean bait consumption rates on the ground were 0.811, 0.949, and 0.955, respectively). The appropriate season for oral treatments using alfalfa baits both on the ground and in deer feeders is late summer (mean bait consumption rate on the ground for alfalfa-based baits was 0.939 in summer period). These results indicate that alfalfa baits are sufficiently palatable and specific in summer for them to be an efficient means to deliver treatments to red deer in Mediterranean ecosystems.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge the collaboration of Mr. Óscar Rodríguez from S3 and the “Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales (OAPN)-Centro Quintos de Mora” for collaborating and facilitating the access to the study sites. Dr. Mitchell V. Palmer from the National Animal Disease Center of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is acknowledged for his advice in the adaptation of the molasses baits to our study. The authors would also like to thank Eladio Gómez Alfaro and students at IREC for their technical assistance. We additionally acknowledge the collaboration of gamekeepers and environmental agents on the study sites who kindly assessed us as regards the location of bait deployment points and during the development of the study.
Funding
This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry for Science, Innovation and Universities (MCIU) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) through grants “AGL2014-56305” and “CGL2017-89866R.” JMG was supported by an FPI grant from MCIU (BES-2015-072206), whereas DGB was supported by the Juan de la Cierva program of MCIU. LCM acknowledges funding from grant INIA E-RTA2015-00002-C02-02 and contract PEJ2018-003155-A from MCIU.
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Martinez-Guijosa, J., Casades-Marti, L., González-Barrio, D. et al. Tuning oral-bait delivery strategies for red deer in Mediterranean ecosystems. Eur J Wildl Res 66, 51 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-020-01389-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-020-01389-8