Effects of Stocking Density, Feeding, and Herd Management on Mortality of Park Deer

Abstract

Patterns of mortality were studied in 15 park populations of red (Cervus elaphus) and fallow deer (Dama dama) in England in an attempt to determine relationships between levels of overwinter mortality and various characteristics of population structure or management. Our data show that high levels of mortality may be expected among animals of poor condition (low body weight) at the end of cold winters (especially in years where late-winter temperatures in January and/or February are particularly low). Lower mortalities are experienced where stocking densities remain at or below two stock units per hectare of good grazing, where feeding of supplementary fodder overwinter commences in November rather than later in the winter, and when that winter supplement provides the equivalent of 12 MJ or more ME per stock unit per day.