In species where defense of females or resources attractive to females is not an option, males search for mates. How males locate mates is not well understood. Male white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are assumed to search widely for females in estrus; but the rut (2–4 weeks) and estrus (1–2 days) are short and males would benefit by having a strategy to locate mates. Because females typically have small home-range sizes and exhibit site fidelity, we predicted males would spend time in small focal areas containing females during rut. We fitted 102 males with GPS collars across 5 breeding seasons in South Texas. During rut, movement rates increased but most males used a small portion (26–34%) of their home ranges. Most males had ≥ 2 small focal areas (18–33 ha) which were revisited every 20–28 h. Because estrus is ∼24 h, males may revisit focal areas to assess female receptiveness. During peak rut, 1 year olds had the lowest movement rates and rates were similar in 2- and ≥ 3-year-old males. However, most 2 year-old males exhibited Levy walks, an efficient search strategy when resources are rare. One-year-old males may not have exerted high effort, whereas most 2 year olds used a different strategy because of competition or lack of experience. Our results provide the first fine-scale description of ungulate mate-searching behavior and how spatial memory may be important for acquiring mating opportunities in species that rove for mates.
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1 April 2015
Purposeful wanderings: mate search strategies of male white-tailed deer
Aaron M. Foley,
Randy W. DeYoung,
David G. Hewitt,
Mickey W. Hellickson,
Ken L. Gee,
David B. Wester,
Mitch A. Lockwood,
Karl V. Miller
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Journal of Mammalogy
Vol. 96 • No. 2
April 2015
Vol. 96 • No. 2
April 2015
Breeding season
GPS radiocollar
mate search strategy
movement
Odocoileus virginianus
periodicity
rut