Diel and seasonal activity pattern of alien sika deer with sympatric mammalian species from Muljangori-oreum wetland of Hallasan National Park, South Korea

BACKGROUND: Sika deer, Cervus nippon, were originally introduced to South Korea from Japan and Taiwan for commercial farming purposes. Unfortunately, they were released into the wild during religious events and have since begun to impact the native ecosystem and species endemic to South Korea. The study of activity patterns can improve our understanding of the environmental impact of non-native species and their association with sympatric species. Using camera traps, we studied the diel and seasonal activity patterns of non-native sika deer and quantified the temporal overlap with sympatric mammalian species in the Muljangori-oreum wetlands of Hallasan National Park, South Korea. RESULTS: A total of 970 trap events were recorded for five mammalian species from nine locations during the camera-trap survey. Siberian roe deer (Capreoluspygargus tianschanicus) had the highest number of recorded events (72.0%), followed by sika deer (Cervus nippon) (16.2%), wild boar (Sus scrofa) (5.0%), Asian badger (Meles leucurus) (4.5%), and the Jeju weasel (Mustela sibirica quelpartis) (2.0%). Sika deer had bimodal activity patterns throughout the year, with peaks throughout the spring-autumn twilight, and day and night time throughout the winter. Relating the daily activity of sika deer with other mammalian species, roe deer expressed the highest degree of overlap (Δ₄ = 0.80) while the Asian badger demonstrated the lowest overlap (Δ₄ = 0.37). CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that sika deer are a crepuscular species with seasonal variations in daily activity patterns. Additionally, we identified the temporal differences in activity peaks between different mammals in the Muljangori-oreum wetlands and found higher degree of overlap between sika deer and roe deer during twilight hours.