Deer Use on Mount Desert Island: DRAFT

Fuller, A.; Harrison, D.

From the introduction: 'The objectives of this study were to estimate cause-specific mortality rates of deer to evaluate the influence of competing mortality factors on deer population dynamics on MDI. Mortality rates were used to develop a model to assess the influence of natural predation and human-caused mortality on the deer population in Acadia National Park. Our models estimated the adult female survival rate and reproductive rates necessary to maintain a stable population. We also evaluated deer habitat use during winter and summer, and the extent to which deer used non-park lands.' From portions of the discussion: 'Home-range sizes of deer on Mount Desert Island were considerably larger than those reported in previous studies. Average yearly home-range size of males (662 ha) on MDI was almost 3X that of females (222 ha), and home ranges of females during the winter (315 ha) were > 2X that of home ranges of females during the summer (145 ha).' 'Our research has documented that with the current estimates of fawn and adult doe survival, the deer population on MDI will continue to decrease. The decline is not attributed to a lack of high quality forage, as documented by Saeki (1991). Our results suggest that the deer population is declining because of low fawn survival and low adult doe survival.' /STUDY LOCATIONS:/ /MOUNT DESERT ISLAND/