Modeling distribution of dispersal distances in male white-tailed deer

Journal of Wildlife Management
By: , and 

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Abstract

Dispersal distances and their distribution pattern are important to understanding such phenomena as disease spread and gene flow, but oftentimes dispersal characteristics are modeled as a fixed trait for a given species. We found that dispersal distributions differ for spring and autumn dispersals of yearling male white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) but that combined data can be adequately modeled based on a log-normal distribution. We modeled distribution of dispersal distances from 3 distinct populations in Pennsylvania and Maryland, USA, based on the relationship between percent forest cover and mean dispersal distance and the relationship between mean and variance of dispersal distances. Our results suggest distributions of distances for dispersing yearling male white-tailed deer can be modeled by simply measuring a readily obtained landscape metric, percent forest cover, which could be used to create generalized spatially explicit disease or gene.
Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Modeling distribution of dispersal distances in male white-tailed deer
Series title Journal of Wildlife Management
DOI 10.2193/2007-436
Volume 72
Issue 6
Year Published 2008
Language English
Larger Work Type Article
Larger Work Subtype Journal Article
Larger Work Title Journal of Wildlife Management
First page 1296
Last page 1303
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