2019 Volume 59 Issue 1 Pages 37-48
To understand how medium to large mammals in forest environments utilize wallows, which are shallow depressions containing water that are formed by the wallowing of large mammals, camera traps were set up at six sites in eastern Tanzawa, Kanagawa. A total of 12 species were recorded over the 29 months from June 2015 to October 2017. The four most abundant species, which accounted for 88.2% of the photographs captured, were Cervus nippon, Sus scrofa, Nyctereutes procyonoides, and Meles anakuma. The most frequently observed behaviors of the four species were as follows. Cervus nippon males wallowed to appeal to females during the rut, but females visited the wallows only to drink. Sus scrofa regularly visited the sites to wallow in the mud. The two carnivorous species (Nyctereutes procyonoides and Meles anakuma) visited the wallows during the spring when they foraged for aquatic life. In addition to revealing that Cervus nippon males and females utilize the wallows for different purposes, a positive correlation was observed between the sodium concentration of the water and the frequency of female visits. These findings suggest that the wallows are used as saltlicks by Cervus nippon and as foraging sites by carnivores, suggesting that the wallows are an important habitat for forest mammals.
