Food Habits of Sika in Fudakake, Tanzawa Mountains

概要

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Food habits of sika (Cervus nippon) were studied in Fudakake, Tanzawa Mountains, Kanagawa Prefecture from 1972 to 1975. This area was situated from 370 to 870m in elevation. Eaten plants by sika, 53 families, 80 genera and 106 species were recorded; 72 species of them were trees and shrubs, and 34 species were forbs and grasses. Few plant species, eaten all the year round, were observed. Rather, highly utilized plants, wide-spread and dominant species in this area, successively appeared every season. In winter intensive utilization of sasa (Sasa purpurascence) was exactly effective for sika survival through the critical season of winter when most food plants were unavailable. Parts eaten varied widely with the season and the plant species; especially from late autumn to early spring, barks of a few species, such as Clero-dendrum trichotomum, Aralia elata and Zanthoxylum piperitum, were intensively taken. Since the winter of 1973/1974, new food-taking behaviors, such as“branch breaking”and“culm breaking”, have conspicuously occurred. Simultaneously, not a few plants, which had been utilized at low level or not, became to be taken conspicuously. Those trends were seemingly dependent on sika density and plant succession in the study area.