Native red deer and introduced chamois: foraging habits and competition in a subalpine meadow-spruce forest area
2001
Homolka, M. | Heroldova, M. (Akademie Ved, Brno (Czech Republic). Ustav Biologie Obratlovcu)
In the higher altitude parts of the Jeseniky Mountains (1,100-1,490 m a.s.l.) high density of red deer and chamois populations had a significant damaging impact on the vegetation structure. We compared native red deer and introduced chamois feeding niches width and overlap. Red deer and chamois consumed throughout the year almost the same diet, and their feeding niches showed extensive overlap during all seasons. In the environment with highly simplified plant communities, neither species had any possibility to follow its specific foraging strategy. In their diets, grass-like plants unambigously dominated during the whole year (growing season: 92-98 % of volume, winter: 52-55 % of volume). The plant composition of the diet corresponded to the diet of typical grazers. A low proportion of forbs and broadleaved woody plants in the vegetation and also in the diets of red deer and chamois documents the fact that these important sources of food are limited. It leads to competition for these items between the two species. It also results in low diversity of the herb layer and almost complete absence of the shrub layer.
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