Red deer are far from uncontroversial in Germany – because of the damage they can cause to forests, they are tolerated only within special designated areas. An adapted hunting management, however, can encourage red deer to increasingly forage in open landscapes rather than forests. A previous animal telemetry study already showed the success of such a management within the Military Training Area Grafenwöhr.
Friederike Riesch, Ph.D. student in our group, investigated whether such free-ranging wild red deer can actually contribute to the conservation of open landscapes in such areas. Like many closed or active military training areas, Grafenwöhr contains protected open habitats that rely on regular management. Conservation livestock grazing, however, is not possible, as it requires fencing and regular animal control, both of which are hard to realize in these large areas with active military training and remaining unexploded ordinance. So, could red deer, as an autochtonous wild herbivore, fill the role of ‘conservation manager’?
In the course of a three-year study, Friederike found that the amount of biomass removed by wild red deer was comparable to that eaten by livestock under conservation grazing schemes. Biomass removal in lowland hay meadows was highest in spring, but reached its maximum in winter in heathlands, thus fitting well with the different conservation requirements of these two habitats. Such a clear and positive result was surprising even for us!
Read it all in our article now published in the Journal of Applied Ecology!
Bettina Tonn 