Abstract

MEDINA TORRES, Salvador Martín et al. Odocoileus virginianus couesi (Coues & Yarrow, 1875) habitat-density ratio in Sierra del Laurel, Aguascalientes. Rev. mex. de cienc. forestales [online]. 2015, vol.6, n.32, pp.17-36. ISSN 2007-1132.

The Coues deer (Odocoileus virginianus couesi) is one of the 14 subspecies of white-tailed deer in Mexico and its distribution area encompasses 30.4 % of the Mexican Republic and it has a high cinegetic value. A research was carried out in Sierra del Laurel, in the municipality of Calvillo, Aguascalientes, Mexico, on the density of the white-tailed deer in response to the characteristics of the habitat, estimated by means of the count of fecal pellet groups. The habitat was characterized by its topographic and floral-structural traits and by availability of water. The density was determined to be higher in the subtropical shrubland, followed by that of the Quercus forest and of the induced grassland. The variables which accounted for the abundance of this deer species were vegetation type, Pielous equity index, Simpson's predominance index, the density of Ipomoea muruco'des, the floral wealth and the mean height of the shrubs, and the percentage of naked soil. However, the existence of other demographic factors of the dear, such as the sex ratios, as well as anthropic factors including the fragmentation of the habitat, overgrazing, furtive hunting, the presence of hikers and the proliferation of constructions for ecotourism cannot be discarded as possible causes of a larger abundance of this cervid in the subtropical shrubland; therefore, further studies on this topic are required.

Keywords : Calvillo; cervid; fecal pellet groups; subtropical shrubland; generalized linear model; white-tailed deer.