Distribution Patterns of the Moose and the Red Deer in Fragmented Forest Landscape

Abstract

The study was performed in the center of Lithuania, covering 600 thou. ha of total area with forests cover near 30%. The abundance of Moose and Red deer were evaluated by winter pellet method during early spring in 2006. The total length of transect was 890 km. The densities of ungulates were evaluated in every forest track isolated by surrounding >500 m open landscape, totaling in 54 forest complex areas. In these 54 areas we evaluated landscape and stand characteristics and compared with ungulate abundance data by ReDundancy Analysis. We also run regression tree models to define essential factors influencing the density of the Moose and the Red deer. The densities of the Moose and the Red deer slightly positively correlated. The abundance of the Red deer was positive influenced by the forest core area (interior area >200 m from forest edge), the total area of forest complex, the proportion of fertile deciduous forests. Negative impact were assessed by disturbance and fragmentation factors (the road density, the urbanization and the edge density, as well as the poor fertility coniferous proportion). The abundance of the Moose was positively influenced by the uplands bogs and shrub stage areas. Negative impacts were observed of the fertile forests proportion and the proportion of stands with dense underbrush. Regression tree models showed high positive impact of the proportion of marshy site types on the Moose densities. In rich regions (marshes>21% of forest area) the calculated Moose density was highest (5/1000ha). The core area has highest positive impact on the Red deer density. Second influencing factor was the proportion of stands with dense underbrush. In the areas with high core area (>1115 ha) and high proportion of stands with dense underbrush (> 16%) the calculated Red deer density was highest - 11.8/1000 ha.