Multi‐scale maternal behavioral responses by white‐tailed deer to coyote predation risk

Understanding how adult prey perceive predation risk (i.e., the probability of being killed by a predator) during the rearing of young is particularly important, given juveniles are often most vulnerable to predation. Recent research in the southeastern United States has suggested that maternal behavior is highly correlated with predation of white‐tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) neonates by coyotes ( Canis latrans ), offering an important path forward for potential management interventions that improve recruitment in declining deer populations in this region. However, we still lack an understanding of how maternal behaviors (both pre‐ and post‐parturition) relate to predation risk or are mediated by intrinsic factors and extrinsic habitat conditions. We used simultaneous global positioning system (GPS) tracking of adult female deer, neonatal deer, and coyotes, along with a large camera trap array, to assess the response of pre‐ and post‐parturition maternal behaviors to predation risk and habitat conditions in South Carolina, USA, in 2019–2021. We found that pre‐parturition, adult female deer selected birth sites near areas of human development, likely to reduce the risk of encountering a coyote. Post‐parturition, adult female deer altered the spatial scale of their movement during neonate rearing in response to predation risk. Larger adult female home ranges in areas of high coyote activity support the dispersive maternal care hypothesis, although adult females stayed closer to neonates in areas where coyotes were most likely to forage. However, adult females did not alter finer‐scale maternal behaviors (i.e., visitation rates) known to be correlated with fawn survival in our system, suggesting adult female deer either do not perceive areas or times of highest risk at fine spatiotemporal scales, or they do not have the ability to avoid coyotes when performing these critical post‐parturition maternal care behaviors. Given the relatively low rate of fawn survival (29%) observed in our system, to help guide future management interventions that enhance optimal maternal behaviors, we encourage researchers to investigate how ungulate maternal behaviors respond to predation risk at multiple spatiotemporal scales in other systems with higher observed neonatal survival.