Download Big Game and Early Seral Habitat

Big Game and Early Seral Habitat
Doug Cottam Herman Biederbeck
Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife
Big Game
• Bears, cougars, deer,
elk.
• Cougars  deer, elk.
• Brief details on bears.
Early Seral Forest Habitat
• Different definition for wildlife?
• For deer and elk:
– Food
– Cover: weather and predators
– Birth, grow antlers…
– Microclimate and microhabitat
• Quality vs. quantity
• Early seral: post disturbance to closed
canopy (little or no understory).
Black Bears
•
The real reason why I’m being brief on bears!
– Omnivorous, intelligent, eat anything.
– Berry producing vegetation high on the list as they
ripen.
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Plant species diversity - increase bear use.
Black-tailed Deer
• Range CA to AK
• Variety of habitats
• Population density
– Highest in early seral
Black-tailed Deer
• Deer rumen: less volume:body mass
– Microbial digestion relatively short time
– High quality diet requirement:
• Digestible
• Nutritious
• Forage quickly
• Seek cover to ruminate
• Decreased winter metabolic rate
– Must gain weight/body fat in growing season.
Black-tailed Deer
• Plant species
diversity important.
• Quality is important
• Majority of food is
browse.
– Stems, leaves woody
vegetation
• Preference and use
seasonal.
Black-tailed Deer
• Important foods:
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Trailing blackberry
Vine maple
Huckleberry
Grasses (green)
Red Alder
Ocean spray
Madrone
Oak (acorns)
herbs
Black-tailed Deer
• Non-native plants
• Native increasers
• Non fire managed
early seral
Elk
• Roosevelt elk Cascades
west.
• Variety of habitats
• Population density
– Highest in early seral
• Significant differences
with deer.
Roosevelt Elk
• Elk rumen: large volume:body mass
– Microbial digestion breaks down more
indigestible vegetation.
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Consume 50% more than deer.
Forage quickly.
Seek cover to ruminate.
Decreased winter metabolic rate.
– Must gain weight/body fat in growing season.
Roosevelt Elk
• More capable than deer
on low quality diet.
• Low quality – high
quantity.
• Compared to Rocky Mt
elk:
– Significantly lower calf
production due to nutrition
Roosevelt Elk
• Grazers and browsers:
– Consume grasses
(including rank) – winter
and spring
– Grass legume mix
– Browse all seasons
• Diet varies seasonally
• Cover can differ from
deer.
Roosevelt Elk
• Cover:
– Thermal issues both
summer and winter.
– Sexual segregation.
– Antler development.
Deer and Elk
• Deer and elk are generalists.
– Deer more specialized than elk.
• Reach higher densities – early seral forest
habitats.
– Not entirely dependent upon early seral
forests.
• Use and importance is much more
complicated.
Big Game and Early Seral Forests
Challenges
• Deer numbers in western OR in decline.
– Habitat suspected
• Elk numbers increasing, but
misleading?
– Only recently reintroduced.
• Lack of scientific research in PNW.
– Effects of modern forestry on wildlife
– Future role of federal lands
• Other early seral species?
Questions?