INGESTION AND DIET COMPOSITION OF RED DEER (CERVUS-ELAPHUS L) IN THE NETHERLANDS FROM 1954 TILL 1992

We studied the effects of age, sex, and season on ingestion and diet of Dutch red deer (Cervus elaphus) using datasets from 1954-1964, 1970-1976, and 1987-1992. Ingestion by adult deer showed distinct, sex-related seasonal patterns. Stags showed a post-rut period of hyperphagia, while hinds ingested more during lactation. We found no evidence of effects of age or sex on diet composition. Over the past 40 years wavy hairgrass Deschampsia flexuosa and bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus have gradually become the predominant winter forages at the cost of heather Calluna vulgaris, and Scots pine Pit?us sylvestris. Carrying capacity of the winter habitat of red deer in the Netherlands, in terms of availability and quality of winter forages, improved over the past 40 years.