A preliminary study of the daily activity patterns of Sika deer (Cervus nippon) in the Kitakami mountains, Iwate prefecture, via infrared-triggered camera

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We studied the daily activity of sika deer (Cervus nippon) in the northern Kitakami highlands, Japan. We placed 80 infrared-triggered cameras in forests across an area of 336 km2. The study period was 55 days from June 25th to August 19th, 2011, and the total investigation effort was 3,206 trap-days. We collected 112 movies of photographed deer, and the number of events calculated in consideration of the influence of consecutive photography was 50. We found that movies were most often taken between 19:00 and 19:59, generally after sunset, and were more often taken in nighttime than in daytime. We concluded that the deer were active at night in this area. Thus, a feasibility study to assess active times is effective in place of deer capture.