Conservation and Management Plan for Sika Deer (Cervus nippon) in Eastern Hokkaido
Guidelines for Wildlife Conservation and Management in Hokkaido
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On adaptive management
A management policy for sika deer based on sex-specific hunting
Published in Researches on Population Ecology (in Press)
Hiroyuki MATSUDA1), Koichi KAJI2),
Hiroyuki UNO3), Hirofumi HIRAKAWA4) and
Takashi SAITOH5)
Abstract: We consider a management policy for a sika deer (Cervus
nippon) population in the eastern part of Hokkaido. Deer
populations are characterized by a large intrinsic rate of
population increase, no significant density effects on population
growth before population crash, and relatively simple life
history. Our goals of management for the deer population are (1)
to avoid irruption with a severe damage on agriculture and
forestry, (2) to avoid risk of the extinction of the deer
population, and (3) to keep a sustainable yield of the deer. To
make a robust program based on uncertain information about the
deer population, we consider 3 levels of relative population size
and 4 levels of hunting pressures. We consider a critical level
for the extinction, an optimal level and an irruption level. The
hunting pressure for females is set to increase with the
population size. We also recommend to catch males if the
population size is between the critical and optimal levels and to
catch females and males if the population size is larger than the
optimal level. We have to avoid cases of irruption or being
threatened under various sets of uncertain parameter values. The
simulation results suggest that management based on sex-specific
hunting is effective to diminish annual variation in hunting
yield.
Comments welcome!!! matsuda@ori.u-tokyo.ac.jp
1)Ocean Research Institute,
University of Tokyo, Minamidai, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-8639 Japan
2)Nature Conservation Department, Hokkaido Institute of
Environmental Sciences, Sapporo 060-0819, Japan
3)Eastern Hakkaido Wildlife Research Station, Nature Conservation
Department, Hakkaido Institute of Environmental Sciences, Kushiro
085-8588, Japan
4)Hokkaido Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research
Institute, Hitsujigaoka-7, Toyohira, Saporro 062-8516, Japan
5) Present address: Kansai Research Center, Forestry and Forest
Products Research Institute, Kyoto 612-0855,Japan