Monday, February 13, 2012
Solving the Buck Movement Mystery - Part IV
Yearling Bucks versus Mature Bucks
In the previous article I discussed Dr. Stephen Webb’s study on how water availability and protein feeders affected mature buck movement. Thirteen of these mature bucks that Webb tracked were originally captured and radio collared as yearling bucks in 1998. Evan McCoy, a Masters student at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, tracked these yearling bucks to determine dispersal rates and distances. As yearlings, these 13 bucks had home ranges that averaged 1,028 acres with core areas that averaged 249 acres. We then recaptured these same bucks in 2002 when they were five years old. Webb determined their average home range at maturity to be 450 acres. Core areas averaged 55 acres. As a result, home range size decreased an average of 56 percent and core area decreased 78 percent. These data support the results of my earlier Ph.D. study that showed that home range size and core areas tend to decrease as bucks increase in age.
{read more}
Page 1 of 1 pages
