76 JOHS. ANDERSEN 



and generally utilizes his experience as a professional hunter to the utmost. 



Several small incidents have occurred which help to explain our failure in 

 estimating the herd size through direct observation, a good example being 

 the occasion when four animals were seen grazing in one particular place 

 every day for a period, without it being realized at first that they had all 

 acquired different collars. 



This method of 'recapturing' marked animals is somewhat unusual, and 

 each individual is usually 'recaptured' several times; so that in total the 

 'sample' is often a good deal larger than the population. 



Results 



Our first trapping took place in 1956, but many difficulties were encountered 



and much had to be altered. Unfortunately, no trapping was done in 1957, 



and I shall, therefore, concentrate on the results of 1958, our best trapping 



year. 



Trapping took place from 3rd January to 20th February and fourteen traps 

 were used on twenty occasions; frequent snowfall helped us much. During 

 the trapping period the number of recaptures increased steadily — much to 

 the annoyance of the trappers who considered it a sport to get as many new 

 individuals as possible — and much was learned about the home range of 

 individuals. Recapture was most common in the same or a neighbouring 

 trap; bearing in mind that the traps are only 2-300 metres apart it must be 

 concluded that roe-deer are fairly stationary, perhaps more so than one would 

 expect. 



During the trapping period eighty-nine captures were made : 

 thirty-eight fawns (43 per cent of the captures), 

 fifty-one adults. 



The figure of 43 per cent fawns is interesting since it coincides with that 

 found in 1950 when the entire herd was killed. But while during the kill 

 the fawns seemed exposed to the same risk as the adults the trapping showed 

 them to be exposed to greater risk than adults, a feature which is well reflected 

 in the following figures : 



The first 25 captures included 15 fav/ns, i.e. 60 per cent 

 ,, ,, 50 ,, >» 28 ,, ,, 56 



,, 75 >» »' 34 .. >» 45 



All 89 „ „ 38 ,, „ 43 



Although the figures are small the tendency seems clear; and the percentage 

 of fawns must be considered high. It can be added here that the sex ratio was 

 1-3 females to one male (including fawns), i.e. exactly the same as in the 

 herd killed in 1950. Considering only individuals more than one year old 



