Intersexual Resource Partitioning in Black-Tailed Deer: A Test of the Body Size Hypothesis

To understand deer-habitat interactions important to making management decisions, it is necessary to ask questions in an evolutionary framework. Then, patterns that are detected can be evaluated in terms of how they potentially influence fitness, and to make more accurate predictions about changes in habitat use with changes in the environment. Intersexual resource partitioning in Odocoileus spp. is considered to be affected by sexual dimorphism in body size. Body size influences metabolic requirements which in turn presumably influence feeding behavior. Thus, I tested 5 predictions with black-tailed deer (O. hemionus columbianus) on Hopland Field Station, Mendocino County, California, 1989-91, to determine if body size and its presumed impact on feeding behavior cause intersexual resource partitioning