Belyaev D.A., Маslov М.V.
В журнале Амурский зоологический журнал
Год: 2022 Том: 14 Номер: 2 Страницы: 345–357
Bark stripping by red deer has a significant impact on the state of forest ecosystems throughout the range of this ungulate species. Range-wide, red deer eat the bark of more than 20 species of trees, often causing significant damage to forestry. In the south of the Russian Far East, Manchurian red deer Cervus elaphus xanthopygus feed on the bark of elms Ulmus sp. in autumn and spring. However, prior research on the ecology of Manchurian red deer contains no quantitative estimates of the removal of elm bark by this ungulate. This article presents, for the first time, quantitative data on the influence of such deer feeding behavior on the forest stand of Primorsky Region. Manchurian red deer mainly damage undergrowth and young trees up to 40 years old with diameters of 0.5–7.4 cm at breast height (M = 3.75 ± 0.069, n = 249). In Ulmus laciniata undergrowth, the damaged bark area was 0.01–0.45 m2 (M = 0.11 ± 0.096, n = 249). At the same time, the deer scraped more bark from large trees by area on average when converted to one tree.
