Bed-sites of radio-collared adult roe deer Capreolus capreolus were identified during summer 1994 in the Lier valley, southern Norway. Site characteristics were measured at the bed-site and at a randomly chosen site 50 m away. Roe deer preferred to bed down below dense canopy cover, but showed no preference for bedding close to tree trunks. The availability of herbs was higher at bed-sites than at random sites, and higher at bed-sites used by females than at bed-sites used by males. On warm days the abundance of herbs at bed-sites was lower than on cold days, indicating movement away from feeding sites. During warm days roe deer selected bed-sites with humid substrates, probably to increase heat loss by conduction. Bed-sites were well concealed.

The size of the winter home range of female roe deer Capreolus capreolus was studied in Sweden in a boreal area, Grimsö, and in a boreo-nemoral area, Bogesund. The home range size of each roe deer was based on 48–72 radio-locations collected from late January to early March. The average size of the winter home range was similar in the two areas, i.e. about 60 ha. No significant differences were found between home range sizes based on minimum convex polygon and harmonic mean 95%. The mean size of core areas (harmonic mean 50%) differed significantly between study areas. Snow depth was identified as an important factor influencing the size of home ranges. In the boreal forest, snow cover lowered the availability of the main food for the roe deer, i.e. dwarf-shrubs, resulting in roe deer concentrating around artificial feeding sites.

The numbers of adult females and first-winter long-tailed ducks Clangula hyemalis shot in eastern North America between 1972 and 1994 have fallen, though the kill of adult males shows no trend. Most of these ducks are likely to have originated in the Arctic Tundra climatic region of Canada. Although summer and autumn temperatures in that region have shown no trends since 1972, their annual variations can account for 19–53% of the variations in the breeding success of eastern-wintering long-tailed ducks, as reflected by the numbers of first-winter birds in the kill.

Since the return of the wolverine Gulo gulo to the Snøhetta area in Norway in 1979, wolverine predation on sheep Ovis aves has increased in parallel with increases in the number of sheep. Reducing the predation would also reduce the economic losses suffered by sheep farmers and could increase their willingness to accept the presence of wolverines in the area. Therefore, experiments with volatile repellents to reduce predation by wolverines on sheep were carried out. Experiments showed that five oils and three pure chemicals gave distinctive avoidance reactions by captive wolverines. The release rates of the different chemicals were tested in the laboratory and a dispenser allowing the use of the chemicals as long-lasting repellents was developed. In 1993, half of the ewes and their lambs in areas with high losses due to wolverine predation were randomly chosen and fitted with dispensers containing these chemicals. In 1994, the test was repeated and the study area was expanded to include a nearby area, in which farmers had also suffered high wolverine predation on their sheep in recent years. All sheep flocks were monitored during the free-ranging grazing period, and when carcasses were found, necropsies were performed to ascertain the cause of death. Nearly all dispensers were damaged to some degree during the grazing period, but because family groups (ewes and their lambs) were marked, this is believed to probably not have affected the experiment significantly. In spite of the technical failures, significantly fewer losses occurred in the groups with dispensers than in the groups without dispensers. A better dispenser must be developed and a large-scale test should be performed before it is possible to conclude definitively that volatile repellents may be used as an operational instrument to reduce economic losses to sheep farmers and to help conserve wolverines.

Pink-footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus caught in western Denmark during March–April 1990–1992 were X-rayed to detect shotgun pellets. Among first-year and older geese, pellets were detected in 25% (N = 69) and 36% (N = 286), respectively. A simple theoretical model is proposed, relating frequencies of pellet carriers in different age classes, adult survival and the annual rate at which pellets are inflicted upon geese. This model resulted in estimates of pellets being inflicted upon 1,000 first-year and 800 older geese annually. However, annual bag is ca 1,000 first-year and 2,000 older geese, and thus, expectedly, pellets should be inflicted upon approximately two older geese for each first-year. From this it is concluded that the model leads to unrealistic estimates because the observed frequencies of first-year and older pellet carriers are inconsistent; if 25% of the geese carry pellets after their first hunting season, more than the observed 36% of the older geese should be carriers. One explanation of this could be statistical uncertainty of the observed frequency of first-year carriers. A frequency of 15% pellet carriers (lower 95% c.l.) after the first hunting season could account for the inconsistency. As an alternative explanation, lower survival of pellet carriers is proposed. A more general model including differential mortality predicts that survival rates of 87% and 78% for non-carriers and carriers, respectively, could explain the observed carrier frequencies. Use of lower 95% c.l. leads to estimates of pellets being inflicted upon a minimum of ca 0.5 goose per bagged one. If differential survival exists, this ratio will be somewhat higher.

Pink-footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus caught during March–April 1990–1992 in western Jutland, Denmark, were examined for shotgun pellets by X-ray photography, marked by individual colour neck-bands and released. Based on resightings during 1991–1995, survival rates of pellet carriers (N = 114) and non-carriers (N = 230) were compared. Annual resighting probabilities were more than 99%, resulting in a high precision of survival rate estimates. No indications of differences in survival between sexes or age classes (first-year and older) were found, but pellet carriers had a significantly lower survival (0.765) than non-carriers (0.869), this difference being constant between years and cohorts. Since pellet carrying individuals could theoretically represent a non-random subset of the population, this is not conclusive evidence that infliction of pellets affects survival. The lower survival affects the frequency of adult pellet carriers found in X-ray samplings. Correcting for this, the evidence strongly suggests that pellets are inflicted upon at least 0.7 goose for each bagged one.

Behavioural changes of 20 radio-tagged European hares Lepus europaeus were analysed in relation to the harvesting of summer crops under intensive large-scale farming in northeastern France. Focal sampling was also performed to estimate activity budgets and to analyse vigilance sequences according to group size and pre/post-harvest factors. Night-time ranges were 40% larger than day-time ranges; the total home range size was 190 ± 53 ha. Both night-time and day-time range sizes were independent of the pre/post harvest factor, although pre-harvest range centres shifted after harvest and the overlap areas were avoided. Habitat use within ranges was independent of the day/night and pre/post harvest factors, and hares made a larger use of cultivated areas than expected by chance (P < 0.01). Landscape diversity in the home range of hares was lower after harvest than before, but the animals did not maximise their access to crop diversity. Time spent scanning was negatively correlated with group size (r = -0.32, P < 0.005) and vigilance levels averaged lower after than before harvest (P < 0.05). Inter-scan intervals (ISIs) were non-randomly distributed and periodicity in the scanning behaviour was identified using spectral analysis. Hares foraging alone displayed a stronger cyclic pattern in vigilance sequences (i) than hares foraging communally (P = 0.043), and (ii) after than before harvest (P = 0.047). These results were analysed in connection with increased predation risks and shifts in resource distribution.

One paradigm in the biology of game animals is that short-term fluctuations in population densities can be explained with variations in weather. A number of empirical models have been produced supporting this view. However, validation of such models has often been lacking or insufficient. Two methods for checking the validity of such models are presented. The first method is to derive a model for one population and test it against another data set. The second method is to evaluate the forecasting power of the model. For these purposes, the relation between 36 weather variables and population parameters of capercaillie Tetrao urogallus, black grouse T. tetrix, and hazel grouse Bonasa bonasia was studied using population data (1964 – 1984) from three adjacent provinces in Finland. Total population size, number of juveniles and population growth rate were used as dependent variables. Prior to the analyses, the population data were ln-transformed and detrended. Stepwise regression analysis was used with province-specific weather data as explanatory variables. These models were then used to make forecasts one year ahead for each species and province, and the prediction was tested against observed data. Transferred models from the other provinces were also used. The requirement for a good empirical model is that it should be possible to use the model on similar problems in nearby areas. Stepwise regression analyses yielded reasonable fits in most cases ( ranging between 0.2 – 1.0). However, a model from a given province invariably produced a poor fit when applied to another province. Forecasting the population dynamics was only occasionally successful, and was not directly related to the fit of the models. The results suggest that it may often be hazardous to use weather data for predicting population fluctuations of game species, especially for management purposes. This conclusion was further strengthened by demonstrating that using 36 province-specific white noise variables, it was possible to build models with fit and forecasting properties essentially equal to those of the weather-based models.