Monthly Patterns of Movements 



Monthly AAR were calculated for all individuals with 2 or 

 more relocations per month (range 2-13). AAR were partitioned 

 by sex and by age in months and then pooled within those 

 categories to form a population mean AAR for that sex and age. 



Because of the wide variation in values, monthly AAR of 

 females were statistically different only for the most extreme 

 differences in values (e.g. June at 13 months of age vs. June, 

 July, and August for 24+ month old females). Relatively large 

 AAR were recorded from 12 to 14 months of age (Fig. 8.1), when 

 the strong social bond established between mother and young 

 was broken as she prepared for and gave birth to a new fawn. 

 This period was typified by wandering, and occasionally 

 dispersal, of the yearling female. The smallest monthly AAR 

 for 24+ month-old females coincided with parturition and fawn- 

 rearing during June, July, and August. One other trend 

 observed for established, reproducing females (movements of 

 fawns also show this) was a seasonal peak in AAR during March, 

 coinciding with movement to summer range by migratory deer. 

 Movements to winter range did not appear as a sharp one month 

 peak because they may occur throughout the period 

 September-February and individuals may move between seasonal 

 ranges several times during the period. 



The wide variation of individual values resulted in few 

 significant differences between monthly AAR of males, but 2 

 significant peaks in AAR were apparent. The first occurred 

 during May, June, and July as the male fawns reached 1 year of 

 age (Fig. 8.2). A high proportion of yearling males dispersed 

 from their natal home range at this time, accounting for an 

 even greater degree of mobility of yearling males compared to 

 yearling females. The second peak in movements was during the 

 rut in November when the AAR for males was about 3 times that 

 for females. Average activity radii may be larger for males 

 than females during most months, but sample sizes were too 

 small to verify that. 



Emigration 



Emigration rates of marked yearling males (Table 7.7) 

 were not related to population density. Total numbers of 

 yearling males in the fall population did not change much from 

 that expected, based on recruitment, despite average 

 emigration of 51% of all yearling males from the study area by 

 14 months of age. Thus, for yearling males, emigration was 

 apparently balanced by immigration. 



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