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21 November 2019 Landscape-scale effects of homesteads, water, and dingoes on invading chital deer in Australia's dry tropics
David M. Forsyth, Anthony Pople, Luke Woodford, Michael Brennan, Matt Amos, Paul D. Moloney, Ben Fanson, Georgeanna Story
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Abstract

Identifying landscape features and processes that facilitate the persistence of populations is particularly important for invasive mammal species, because it can focus management interventions on relatively small areas. We used camera traps to test predictions concerning the relative abundance of invading chital deer (Axis axis) on seven cattle ranches in northern Australia: that abundance of chital deer would be highest near permanent water and near homesteads, and that dingoes (Canis dingo) reduce abundance of chital deer. Distance from the nearest homestead determined deer abundance (as indexed by images per camera-day), with negligible abundance > 4 km from homesteads. In contrast, distance from homestead did not predict abundance of feral pigs (Sus scrofa), macropods, or dingoes. Abundance of chital deer also declined with increasing distance from water, as did feral pig abundance. There was no relationship between either macropod or dingo abundance and distance to water. The abundance of chital deer was unaffected by dingo abundance, but 75–100% of dingo scats collected within 1 km of homesteads contained chital deer. The high abundances of chital deer near homesteads are likely due to increased food quality or quantity, or protection from dingoes, but these hypotheses require further testing. We conclude that homesteads and permanent water are important determinants of the distribution and abundance of invasive chital deer in northern Australia (i.e., they are “invasion hubs” for this species). Our results suggest that, during the dry season, managers should survey for and attempt to control chital deer within 4 km of homesteads and within 3 km of water.

© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of American Society of Mammalogists. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
David M. Forsyth, Anthony Pople, Luke Woodford, Michael Brennan, Matt Amos, Paul D. Moloney, Ben Fanson, and Georgeanna Story "Landscape-scale effects of homesteads, water, and dingoes on invading chital deer in Australia's dry tropics," Journal of Mammalogy 100(6), 1954-1965, (21 November 2019). https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyz139
Received: 7 January 2019; Accepted: 18 August 2019; Published: 21 November 2019
KEYWORDS
artificial water points
Axis axis
axis deer
BIOLOGICAL INVASIONS
camera trapping
diet
dingo
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