Publication Date
2010
Document Type
Thesis
Committee Members
David Goldstein (Other), Andrew Hsu (Other), Thomas Rooney (Advisor), James Runkle (Committee Member), John Stireman Iii (Committee Member)
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Abstract
Habitat and forage selection by deer can cause local extinction of plant species. In my research, I asked: 1) How do deer population growth rates in urban parks change through time? 2) Are culling rates and deer densities correlated? 3) Are browse rates on Trillium spp. and deer densities correlated? I used FLIR deer census data from Davis Aviation and culling data from Five Rivers MetroParks (Montgomery County, Ohio). I found that deer population growth rates generally declined from 2003 to 2008. The number of deer culled was positively correlated to the deer densities. The browse rates of Trillium spp. were not correlated to the deer densities in the four parks studied in 2009. Present deer management appears to successfully control deer densities. In the future, management efforts should focus on finding a single consistent method for estimating deer densities within the parks, and identify a better browse indicator species.
Page Count
95
Department or Program
Department of Biological Sciences
Year Degree Awarded
2010
Copyright
Copyright 2010, some rights reserved. My ETD may be copied and distributed only for non-commercial purposes and may be modified only if the modified version is distributed with these same permissions. All use must give me credit as the original author.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
