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Ecology, management and conservation in natural and modified habitats
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Ecological effects of game management: does supplemental feeding affect herbivory pressure on native vegetation?

María Miranda A B C H , Ignacio Cristóbal A , Leticia Díaz A , Marisa Sicilia A , Eduarda Molina-Alcaide D , Jordi Bartolomé E , Yolanda Fierro F and Jorge Cassinello A G
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos, IREC (CSIC–UCLM–JCCM), Ronda de Toledo s/n, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain.

B Centre for African Ecology, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa.

C Present address: Department of Economics, Sports Economics Observatory Foundation (FOED), Universidad de Oviedo, 33203 Oviedo, Spain.

D Estación Experimental del Zaidín (CSIC), Profesor Albareda 1, 18008 Granada, Spain.

E Departament de Ciència Animal i del Aliments, Grup de Recerca en Remugants, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain.

F Yolfi Properties S.L., Abenójar, 13180 Ciudad Real, Spain.

G Present address: Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), Carretera de Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120 Almería, Spain.

H Corresponding author. Email: maria.miranda@wits.ac.za; maria.mirandaroves@gmail.com

Wildlife Research 42(4) 353-361 https://doi.org/10.1071/WR15025
Submitted: 4 February 2015  Accepted: 10 June 2015   Published: 24 August 2015

Abstract

Context: Supplemental feeding of large mammalian herbivores is a common management tool mainly aimed at promoting healthy populations and at increasing productivity and trophy sizes. Such management measure may indirectly affect herbivore effects on plant communities through altered foraging patterns. The quantification of the ecological effects of large herbivore management is important for designing holistic management and conservation programs.

Aims: Here we aimed at quantifying the ecological effects of supplemental feeding of Iberian red deer, Cervus elaphus hispanicus, on the composition of and on the browsing effects on Mediterranean woody plant community.

Methods: An experiment was set up in a hunting rangeland located in central Spain, where female deer were kept in enclosures with either exclusive access to natural forages or with additional ad libitum access to a nutritionally rich concentrate. The experiment also included a control area where deer were absent.

Key results: We observed significant differences in browsing impacts among the supplemented, non-supplemented and control areas, and such effect varied for the different plant species. Plant species which nutritional content complemented that of fodder were more highly consumed, for instance, Erica spp., which digestible fibre content is higher and N content lower than that of provided fodder. The presence of deer and the concentrate supplied, instead, did not influence the relative abundances of shrub species.

Conclusions: Artificial supplemental feeding provided to ungulates led to increased browsing on plant species which nutritional composition complemented that of the supplement provided.

Implications: So as to alleviate herbivory impact on all shrubs, we suggest that composition of supplemental feeding should adjust both to the natural forage availability and quality and to ungulate requirements across seasons.

Additional keywords: herbivory, red deer, wildlife management.


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