Abstract
The purpose of this study was to clarify the characteristics of the home range of the sika deer in the Tanzawa Mountains.
The relationship between the home range and degradation of undergrowth vegetation was also examined. The investigation was carried out by the radiotelemetry method. A transmitter was fixed to 5 adult deer between 1991∼1994. In the study area, artificial feeding was carried out in the winter of 2000. From this investigation, it was observed that there was no notable change in the seasonal home range for the deer which did not utilize the feeding field, while the deer that fed from the feeding field formed a seasonal home range around the field in the winter.
The annual home range of the radio collared deer was mostly constant, only small changes were observed.
The snow cover in the study area was light, and there was no hunting at this time. There was no remarkable regional difference in the food environment. The radio collared deer did not seem to migrate. By the attraction to the feeding environment, the home range of non-migratory deer seemed to change little in the winter. The deer seemed to confine themselves to a small area since the home range of the radio collared individuals did not change much.
From this fact, the deer seems to have an ecological characteristic which thoroughly utilizes food resources in a small area.
It may be inferred that this characteristic contributed to the degradation of the undergrowth vegetation.
