Behavior of Columbian Black-Tailed Deer with Reference to Population Ecology

An understanding of animal behavior is essential to any study of population ecology. The dynamics of a population, including changes in natality, mortality, density and structure are strongly influenced by behavioral elements such as mobility, territoriality and social organization. These elements of behavior have been investigated for the Columbian black-tailed deer, Odocoileus hemionus columbianus (Richardson), in Lake County, California. The findings for this area, with comparative data from the literature on Odocoileus and, where appropriate, other Cervidae, form the body of this report. The present study was made in the north coast ranges of California, about five miles southwest of Lakeport in the Scott Creek drainage. Work in this area was begun in 1948. Detailed studies of behavior were carried out in the period 1951 to 1953, with further checks being made in the summers of 1954 and 1955. In the study region the principal plant complex is chaparral. This is an assemblage of fire-adapted shrubs, which respond to burning either by sprouting from the root crown, or by having seeds that are stimulated to germinate by fire. In this area the chaparral is broken into distinct north and south exposure aspects, the former dominated by interior live oak (Quercus wislizenii) and the latter by chamise (Adenostema fasciculatum). Many other species of the same general growth form also occur in smaller numbers.