Honyurui Kagaku (Mammalian Science)
Online ISSN : 1881-526X
Print ISSN : 0385-437X
ISSN-L : 0385-437X
Original Articles
Occurrence of deer barking damage to young and middle-aged sugi and hinoki cypress, and characteristics of feeding scars
Akira Sano
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2009 Volume 49 Issue 2 Pages 237-243

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Abstract
From November 2006 to February 2009, seasonality in occurrence of bark-stripping by sika deer (Cervus nippon), and external characters of damage traces were investigated in 31 young and middle-aged sugi (Cryptomeria japonica) and hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) plantations in Mie Prefecture, central Japan. Of 381 cases of debarking, 99.7% and 0.3% were due to bark-feeding and fraying, respectively. Most of the bark-feeding damage occurred during the tree-growing season (March–August), but damage in the non-growing season (November–February) was found in only two plantations of over 750 m above sea level. In the tree-growing season, outerbark and innerbark were taken off together and thick innerbark was eaten. The exposed surface of the xylem was usually smooth, 73.3% of damaged trees were without teeth-marks. In trees debarked in the non-growing season, the outerbark was stripped off, and many teeth-marks were found on the filmy innerbark adhering to the xylem. Bark-feeding damage in the tree-growing and non-growing seasons were definitely distinguished from each other, and the viewpoint that debarking without teeth-marks was caused by fraying was erroneous.
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© 2009 The Mammal Society of Japan
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