13. Habitats and their management: its importance based on examples from big game management.

Question 1

Integrated game/wildlife management:

Answer 1

In most systems, game management happens on the property of other people. You need to consider:
- The purpose of land use in the area
- Synchronization of land-use and game/wildlife management
 Content, area, timescale
 Better harmonization of agriculture/forest wildlife relations
 Wildlife management and hunting synchronized with the productivity of local vegetation (planning aligned with capacity)

The two main things that need to change in ungulate/big game management are:
- Manager and hunters should in many cases stop trying to count their animals
o Accurate estimation of ungulate numbers is extremely difficult (impossible)
- Managers and hunter should devote more time to census the habitat of their animals

Big game have a high impact on component of ecological systems: they have a dominant role in the structure and ecological dynamics of both natural and man-made ecosystems. They affect species composition of many plant, birds and insects communities, as well as the age-structure and physical structure of natural and planted forests

Undulates can cause a lot of damage to crops and forests, overabundance can destroy the habitat

Question 2

Habitat improvement for ungulates:

Answer 2

• Diverse, heterogeneous habitat
   Opportunity for food selection
• Forest
   Gap dynamics
   Transition to uneven-aged forest
   Diverse understory
• Open areas
   Woody patches, tree rows, edges with protein-rich, fruit-producing species
   Patchily distributed small game plots (with mixed herbaceous plants)
   Rational supplementary feeding

Question 3

Moving towards indirect methods

Answer 3

New paradigm: Adaptive management
* A practical manager should determine expectations and goals based on
* productivity or performance of animals and
* status (condition) of habitats.
* This approach involves:
* long term monitoring of individual characteristics
* long term monitoring of population changes
* long term monitoring of the effects of herbivores on habitats (plant communities.
Long-term thinking and action
New paradigm: Adaptive management
* Changes of ecoindicators should be numerically expressed and comparable to the goals
* Level of hunting pressure can be evaluated on a numerical basis.
* Comparison of ecoindicator, state variable and hunting pressure allows the follow up of the process

Question 4

The management of ungulates

Answer 4

The management of ungulates should take advantage of this sort of approach by
* improving the monitoring of the population-environment system, and
* in order to collect a larger and more reliable amount of data,
* hunters should be stimulated to take part in the data collection

Red deer:
- Problem/Damages: agricultural damage that depends on:
 Big game density
 Exposition of the areas
 Field size and length of forest border
- Rum Island example: High density of animals, over k
 Effects on reproduction: proportion of first reproduction, growth and development of females and on repeated reproduction
 Rearing losses: decreased calf rearing success, high calf mortality in first 2 years
 Functions of survival and reproduction: decreased length of antlers, later antler casting date, decreased milking hinds changing to winter coat, later rut start date
- Habitat requirements:
 Different successional stages for food
 Bushes for cover
 Reduced open areas
 Presence of waterbody
 Mud baths, protected from sun
 Predator control

Mouflon:
- Problem/Damages:
 Forest: grazing damage, peeling. Disturbs regeneration and plantation
 Nature and conservation: tramping (many hooves), erosion on sensitive grasslands
- Habitat requirements:
 Mediterranean species  introduced  uses Southern slopes of mountainous regions
 Predator avoidance
 Scarce vegetation (but valuable herbaceous species!)

Roe deer:
- Main points of management:
 Damages: prevention and decrease
 Healthy population: neither disease not failure regulate
 Harvest: sustainable
 Constraints: costs and biology
 Selection: no genetic basis – body weight and antlers are regulated by summer and winter food amount and quality
- Storfosna Island example: population explosion
 Decline of body weight
 Decline reproductive success
 Fawns and yearlings are most affected