USE OF WATER CURRENTS BY THE MAIN CYNEGETIC UNGULATE IN BAJA CALIFORNIA, MÉXICO

Abstract

The mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus; Rafinasque, 1817) is the principal mammal exploited through hunting in Baja California, México. Despite its economic and cultural importance, there are no evaluations of the availability and use of water currents, which are one of the main components in the habitat of arid ecosystems. Through photo-trapping the use of currents was determined, as well as the environmental temperature, schedule, month of the year, and frequencies of visit of mule deer males and females. It was found that the visits to currents increase when the temperatures are above 40 °C (July-August). In general the records of females were higher (n=68) than males (n=18), and there were only three records
of fawns. The water currents that were studied turned out to be important mainly for females which were occasionally accompanied by offspring; therefore, the introduction of domestic livestock is not advisable, and neither is sport hunting in these sites.