engleski

Scraping of roe deer in forested habitats in early spring: A marking behaviour or searching for hypogeous fungi (Elaphomyces sp.) as an additional food source?

Scraping (i.e. pawing the ground with the front hooves) is assumed to be a marking behaviour of (particularly male) roe deer ; this remarkable behaviour is believed to represents either a visual signalisation or a scent communication among individuals. However, both temporal patterns as well as functions of scrapes in roe deer are rather controversial – they might be either an important signs in acquisition and maintenance of territories or a part of a display in aggressive male-male interactions, i.e. between intermittently occurring fights. In this respect, it is somehow strange that scraping activity in forested habitats generally increased drastically before the time of establishment of territories (with the peak still in the period of velvet shedding) and decline well before the rut period. Although this inconsistency between spatial pattern and functional aspects of scraping in roe deer might be explained as a communication between males, some other explanations for high frequency of roe deer scraps in forested landscape may also be valid. Indeed, our former microscopic examination of roe deer faeces indicated that fruiting bodies of deer truffles (Elaphomyces granulatus) are often consumed by roe deer (spores of this hypogeous fungi were present in 25 % of roe deer faeces examined). Moreover, during unsystematic inspections of roe deer scraps we found several times sporocarps of this fungus. Finally, in the close vicinity of spring scraps we also found sometimes a fresh fawn’ s excrements, which indicated that some scraps had been made also by juveniles, and hereby they do not always represent a marking behaviour. To verify our doubts, we systematically checked 37 scraps made by roe deer in March and April 2007 in mixed forests (Picea abies, Pinus sylvestris, Fagus sylvatica, Castanea sativa and Quercus patraea as predominant tree species) in the Šalek Valley, Slovenia. The following issues were done: (i) searching for fruiting bodies of deer truffles at the places of scraps and at comparable parallel (non-scraped) plots ; (ii) searching for the presence of Elaphomyces-type mycorrhizae below each scraps ; and (iii) searching for spores of deer truffles in roe deer faeces, found in the close vicinity of scraps. Fruiting bodies of deer truffles were found below 25 (68 %) of scrapes made by roe deer ; moreover, Elaphomyces-type mycorrhizae was found in majority of soil samples, collected at the places of scrapes, which indicates either that (i) fruiting bodies had been present but subsequently eaten by roe deer ; or (ii) roe deer can recognise growing places of hypogeous fungi although their sporocarps have not grown yet. A presence and a high frequency of deer truffles at the places of scraps made by roe deer (together with relatively high frequency of spores of this species found in roe deer faeces) indicates that scraping of roe deer in forested habitat in early spring is not ultimately a marking behaviour ; rather, a presence of scraps (particularly in the vicinity of spruce and pine trees) is primarily an evidence of roe deer searching for deer truffles as an alternative food source.

roe deer; scraping; marking behaviour; hypogeous fungi; deer truffles;

nije evidentirano