I collected 19 pregnant, wild red deer hinds (females) over 14 February to 25 May, 1973, to investigate the extreme weight losses which then occur, since these seem to exemplify the poor productivity of Highland deer populations. Twenty-nine foetuses also were collected, from 18 January to 25 May, the last 19 being those of the collected hinds. Both hinds and foetuses were analysed by physical dissection and chemical composition determinations, and the results are presented and discussed. An experiment was undertaken to measure the productive response of wild hinds to being winter-fed with a high-energy diet; because only one fed hind could be recovered for analysis the experiment was inconclusive. This research and other recent published work lead me to the conclusion that Highland red deer are well adapted to living off body energy reserves in winter, and that level of summer dietary energy intake probably is the most important single factor presently inhibiting Highland red deer productivity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:640493 |
| Date | January 1978 |
| Creators | Anderson, J. E. M. |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/11265 |
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