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Habitat Selection by the Siberian Musk Deer Moschus Moschiferus

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Habitat Selection by the Siberian Musk Deer Moschus Moschiferus Anthropogenic influences on the distribution of a Vulnerable coniferous forest specialist: habitat selection by the Siberian musk deer Moschus moschiferus J ONATHAN C. SLAGHT,BRIAN M ILAKOVSKY,DARIYA A. MAKSIMOVA I VAN V. SERYODKIN,VITALIY A. ZAITSEV A LEXANDER M. PANICHEV and D ALE G. MIQUELLE Abstract The Siberian musk deer Moschus moschiferus, ca- Introduction tegorized as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, is a small un- gulate associated with coniferous forests of East Asia. In ogging is an important component of the economy of Russia the species is hunted both legally and illegally for Lthe southern Russian Far East. If conducted properly, the commercially valuable musk gland in males. Steep some logging can improve habitat for ungulate species by population declines recorded in recent decades have been creating a structurally diverse forest, promoting growth of generally attributed to intensive illegal hunting, but the de- understorey vegetation and providing forage (Slaght et al., cline has coincided with increased logging activity and the in press). However, the logging roads built to facilitate timber concomitant expansion of logging roads. We conducted removal in the region also provide access for poachers, who an occupancy analysis in Primorskii Krai, Russia, to eluci- target ungulates, such as Siberian musk deer Moschus date the relative importance of environmental, ecological moschiferus,sikadeerCervus nippon, roe deer Capreolus py- and anthropogenic features associated with the presence gargus, red deer Cervus elaphus and wild boar Sus scrofa,as of musk deer. The top model contained covariates related well as Asiatic black bears Ursus thibetanus and Amur tigers to the abundance of bearded lichen Usnea spp., the distance Panthera tigris altaica (Dunishenko et al., ; Slaght & to a main road and the distance to logging sites, suggesting Surmach, ; Slaght et al., in press). Although most ungu- that both intensive hunting of musk deer (associated with lates are poached for their meat, musk deer, categorized as greater accessibility via roads) and logging of habitat are in- Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (Nyambayar et al., ), fluencing the occurrence of this species. We propose several are usually targeted for the musk glands found in males. management actions to limit the negative influence of log- Musk is used in eastern traditional medicine and the per- ging and logging roads on musk deer in Russia, including fume industry (Ostrowski et al., ). Since the s encouraging logging companies to set aside high conserva- Moschus spp. numbers in Russia and elsewhere have de- tion value forests (to retain intact forests) and to close log- clined sharply, and the decline is generally attributed to in- ging roads post-harvest (to reduce access by poachers). tensive harvesting (both legally and illegally) of the glands (Homes, ; Nyambayar et al., ; Ostrowski et al., ). Keywords Habitat selection, logging, Moschus moschiferus, Musk deer are found throughout much of the higher ele- occupancy, poaching, roads, Russia, Siberian musk deer vation forests of East Asia. Unlike most ungulates in the Supplementary material for this article can be found at southern Russian Far East, which are found in deciduous https://doi.org/./S or mixed forest, musk deer are closely associated with ma- ture and over-mature coniferous forests (Zaitsev, ). The deer prefer such forests because of the abundance of pendu- lant epiphytic lichens (Usnea, Evernia, Bryoria and Ramalina spp., hereafter forage lichens), which can com- ’ JONATHAN C. SLAGHT (Corresponding author) and DALE G. MIQUELLE* Wildlife prise up to % of the musk deer s winter diet, and because Conservation Society, 2300 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10460, USA the patchy structure of these forests (with dense patches of E-mail [email protected] undergrowth and abundant felled trees) provides excellent BRIAN MILAKOVSKY WWF, Amur Branch, Vladivostok, Russian Federation cover for these secretive ungulates (Zaitsev, , ; DARIYA A. MAKSIMOVA,IVAN V. SERYODKIN* and ALEXANDER M. PANICHEV Pacific Prikhodko, ; Domanov, ). Geographical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences Far Eastern Branch, ’ Vladivostok, Russian Federation The musk deer s coniferous habitat is currently a priority target for logging in the southern Russian Far East. VITALIY A. ZAITSEV A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Moscow, Russian Federation Although the region still contains large expanses of unman- *Also at: Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russian Federation aged, roadless coniferous forests, many of which meet the Received April . Revision requested July . definition of intact forest landscapes (Aksenov et al., Accepted November . First published online May . ), industrial timber harvesting is continually expanding Oryx, 2019, 53(1), 174–180 © 2017 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605316001617 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.76, on 27 Sep 2021 at 15:42:13, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316001617 Habitat selection by Siberian musk deer 175 into previously remote areas (e.g. in Ternei County of nor- Primorskii Krai, Russia, in and adjacent to the Sikhote- thern Primorskii Krai (or Province) the cumulative length of Alin Biosphere Reserve (Fig. ). The Biosphere Reserve is forest roads increased an estimated -fold during – an IUCN Category Ia federally protected area, where re- , from to , km; Slaght et al., in press). source extraction (e.g. hunting, logging, collection of non- The role of logging and its subsequent impact on human timber forest products) is strictly prohibited and other access and forest structure is a poorly understood factor in- human use (e.g. recreation) is largely restricted (although fluencing musk deer populations. Industrial forest manage- all these activities occur in adjacent lands). The study area ment may affect musk deer populations directly (e.g. is mountainous, at –, m altitude, with forests domi- through habitat transformation) or indirectly (e.g. through nated by Ayan spruce Picea ajanensis, Manchurian fir Abies increased hunting pressure as a result of expansion of the nephrolepis and Korean pine Pinus koraiensis, and with a logging roads network), or both. Although there is a general significant component of Dahurian larch Larix dahurica consensus that intensive snaring (the most effective means and yellow birch Betula costata. Korean spruce Picea kor- of obtaining musk deer glands) is the primary culprit, aiensis sometimes replaces Ayan spruce in stream and Tukhbatulin () argued for the importance of indirect river valleys. At lower elevations temperate hardwood spe- factors, having found that the musk deer population in cies begin to appear, including Amur linden Tilia amuren- the Samarga River basin (northern Primorskii Krai) in- sis, small-leaf maple Acer mono, Manchurian ash Fraxinus creased significantly in the first year after selective harvest- mandshurica, mountain elm Ulmus laciniata and ing in spruce–fir forests (probably because of the abundance Mongolian oak Quercus mongolica. of accessible forage lichens in the logging slash) but then The dominant forest leaseholder in the study area (in the dropped catastrophically over the next years as hunting lands outside Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve) is Joint Stock and poaching pressure increased. Extensive anecdotal evi- Company TerneyLes (hereafter TerneyLes), which cuts tim- dence from the region confirms the key importance of ac- ber primarily using shelterwood harvesting, a management cess: many hunters, game managers and rangers have technique that removes enough canopy trees to allow light stated that musk deer populations plummet in newly roaded into the understorey to stimulate regeneration but leaves en- forests, irrespective of logging intensity. ough to provide some protective shade (hence the term shel- However, much literature also points to a significant dir- ter). This method leaves a high proportion of standing trees ect impact of timber harvesting on musk deer; for example, post-harvest, including many that will never be harvested, in the late Soviet period (when hunting and poaching of the such as the Korean pine, logging of which is banned species for its glands was relatively limited), sharp reductions (CITES, ) because of its high ecological and social in musk deer populations were observed after clear-cutting of value as a source of pine nuts. Many large trees are also mature coniferous forests in Chuguyevka County (central left standing when, because of the mountainous relief, Primorskii Krai; Ribachuk, ). Similarly, Domanov skid trails veer apart and the space between them is unreach- () observed that musk deer nearly disappeared after log- able by harvesters from either side. This increases the level of ging in relict patches of mature spruce–larch forests in the retention and often leads to unharvested islands of pine and Tukurungra Mountain range in Amurskaya Province, surrounding spruce and fir trees amidst logging sites. where commercial hunting of musk deer was almost absent. The loss of cover and sources of forage lichens after logging and forest fires was identified as an important driver of musk Methods deer population declines in both the Sikhote-Alin Mountains of Primorskii Krai and on Sakhalin Island, where the local Survey design subspecies of musk deer is listed as Endangered in the Red Book of the Russian
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