The scale-dependent effectiveness of wildlife management: A case study on British deer

Abstract

Impacts of herbivory by wild ungulates represent a significant issue world-wide. To be effective, management of populations and impacts needs to be coordinated above the site scale, yet little research has investigated the appropriate spatial scale over which management should be integrated to be fully effective. In consideration of reduction of impacts in deciduous or mixed woodland habitats, we tested scale-specific management effectiveness in a lowland area of UK where moderate- to high-density populations of four deer species were the target of deliberate control programmes, and nonhuman predators were absent. We modelled the annual impact recorded between 2009 and 2015 in 98 woodlands as a function of cumulative culls of deer taken since the commencement of management. Analysis was repeated at different spatial scales by increasing the circular area around each focal woodland, from 2.5 km-radius up to 100 km-radius. Our findings suggest for the first time the geographical scale over which deer management needs to be coordinated for optimum effectiveness in decreasing their impact on woodland across relatively homogenous landscapes. For small bodied and relatively sedentary species (roe deer Capreolus capreolus; Reeves' muntjac Muntiacus reevesi), reductions in impacts within woodlands can be achieved by culling at the immediately local level, but some modest increase in effectiveness (probably relating to reductions in the degree of source-sink movement) may be expected with an increase in spatial scale of culling to around 30-70 km-radius. For larger-bodied, herding species with more extensive home-ranges (fallow deer Dama dama; red deer Cervus elaphus) management for reduction of woodland impacts was only really effective when coordinated above the single woodland-scale, with marked increases shown again up to a scale of 100 km-radius. Whilst future studies for different landscape types are still needed, our work emphasises that the spatial scale at which control plans are conducted can determine the effectiveness of wildlife management, possibly providing an advance on how to manage wildlife populations more effectively.

Keywords: Browsing impact; Deer; Forest restoration; Herbivory; Management effectiveness; Spatial scale.