Graf Roland

Habitatpräferenzen von Rehen im Naherholungsraum

Project Number: CH-5787

Project Type:	Bachelor
Project Duration:	07/01/2015 - 01/31/2016 project completed
Funding Source:	other ,
Leading Institution:	Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften (ZHAW), Wädenswil
Project Leader:	Dr. Roland Graf Institut Umwelt & Natürliche Ressourcen (IUNR) ZHAW Grüntal 8820 Wädenswil Phone: ; +41 (0) 58 934 55 78 FAX: +41 (0) 58 934 59 11 e-Mail: roland.graf(at)zhaw.ch http://www.unr.ch/

related to this project.

for which the project has a relevance.

Research Areas:

Biodiversity

Disciplines:

environmental sciences

Abstract:
In the area around the Sihlwald, south of the city Zurich, 15 roe deer have been fitted with GPS-GSM telemetry collars to collect GPS-data about their habitat use. The “Wildtier und Mensch im Naherholungsraum“ project conducted by the Wildtiermanagement (WILMA) and Umweltplanung (UPLA) research groups with the aim of studying the effects of human activity on these animals forms the background to this project. The aim of this thesis is to establish what the intensively used habitats of the animals in this local recreation area look like. In particular, there was a great interest in establishing if the animals visit vegetation cover more often or if visibility from paths has an influence on their fine scale habitat selection.

As a first step, I applied the kernel density estimation to compute the core areas visited by the collared animals. Afterwards, I defined three sample (inside the Core Area) and three comparison areas (outside the Core Area) for every season (winter/spring/summer/autumn) and every time of day (day/night). As part of the field recordings I recorded different parameters over an area of 25 m2 on 294 sample and 294 comparison areas. For the analysis purposes, only sample areas that were a maximum of 5 m away from a real GPS localisation were evaluated. In addition, only recording areas (sample and comparison areas) inside forest areas were used for the analysis.

The analyses showed that roe deer occur in young and mid aged forests in particular. Furthermore, they prefer forests with deciduous trees. The accumulated coverage rate (day: p = 0.001, night: p = 0.014) and the coverage rate of the herb layer (day: p = 0.045, night: p = 0.001) of the sample area were significantly higher than those of the comparison areas. This tendency could be seen at both times of the day. The analysis of the visibility from paths divided into the disturbance category (low, middle, strong) showed, that roe deers look for habitats which are not visible from paths during the day (low: p = 0.039, strong: p < 0.001). Such a pattern could also be partially seen during the night (stark: p = 0.038).

The results of the accumulated coverage rate and those from the visibility from paths showed, that roe deer in local recreation areas visit selective vegetation cover. The intensity with which the local recreation area is used also has an impact on the animals and could be seen in the results of the visibility from paths analysis. All other A alysis did ’t sho a lear te dency.


Publications:
Wiederkehr, J. : Habitatpräferenzen von Rehen im Naherholungsraum. Bachelorarbeit, Zürcher Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften, ZHAW Wädenswil.


Last update: 12/22/16
Source of data: ProClim- Research InfoSystem (1993-2024)
Update the data of project: CH-5787

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