Does condition of adult male cervids reflect condition of adult females? A test with mule deer

• Published in: Mammal research 2021-10, Vol.66 (4), p.595-602
• Main Authors: Bender, Louis C., Boren, Jon C., Cox, Shad, Hoenes, Brock D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal Ecology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Body fat; Cervidae; Evolutionary Biology; Females; Fish & Wildlife Biology & Management; Habitats; Life Sciences; Males; Odocoileus; Original Article; Population; Zoology
• ISSN: 2199-2401; 2199-241X
• DOI: 10.1007/s13364-021-00579-2

Body condition integrates the effects of habitat on individuals and consequently population performance of cervids. However, most condition data is likely to come from harvested males, which may not reflect absolute condition of, or habitat quality for, adult females because of basic ecological differences. To test whether condition of males reflected condition of females, we compared three indices of nutritional condition (rump body condition score, maximum subcutaneous fat thickness, and percent body fat) of adult male, lactating adult female, and dry adult female mule deer over multiple years in 2 sites in New Mexico, USA. Males consistently achieved significantly higher levels of condition than females for all indices of condition, regardless of whether indices for males were scaled for metabolic size or not. Because population productivity and rate-of-increase is driven by condition and consequent performance of females, population monitoring strategies that assess only condition of males may not reflect absolute condition of females and thus habitat quality as it fundamentally relates to population dynamics of cervids. Condition of males, however, can likely index relative habitat quality if not absolute.