I roe deer from Trentino in recent days in two prestigious international scientific journals "Scientific Reports" and "Pnas" thanks to two studies conducted by Edmund Mach Foundation which highlight, the first, the effect of the climate on the distribution of roe deer in the coming decades in Trentino (the climate changes and the roe deer rises in altitude) and the second the role of memory in search for food thanks to the analysis of movements (the roe deer seeks nourishment based on the memory of past experiences and not based on sensory perception). A study conducted by the Edmund Mach Foundation, just published in the Scientific Reports journal of the Nature group, made it possible to predict the distribution of roe deer in the Trentino mountains in the coming decades following the effects of climate change.
This is a future photograph of animal movements obtained thanks to the rare possibility of comparing the movement data of animals after decades, precisely those collected by the University of Padua-DAFNAE Department at the beginning of 2000, and the most recent localizations of GPS collars of the FEM, associated with a climatic projection developed with Meteotrentino data which allowed to estimate the depth of snow on the ground in the next 50 years. The study, which covered the Adamello Brenta Park and surrounding areas in the Rendena and Giudicarie valleys, has shown that the snow cover limit will be found at higher altitudes.
Roe deer, not suitable for moving and feeding in deep snow, could therefore in the future occupy stable slopes at higher altitudes than the current ones, probably no longer migrating between winter and summer seasonal sites. "In reality the increase in temperature was recorded in a significant way already during the period considered by our research, with 1.5 ° C more in the winter months in Tione, in the Giudicarie Valley "observes Julius Bright Ross, who with these data has created his own Senior Thesis at the Department Organismic and Evolutionary Biology of Harvard University, supervised by Prof. Paul Moorcroft and researcher Francesca Cagnacci of the Research and Innovation Center FEM. "In an innovative and rare way - observes the researcher Cagnacci - we used real behavior data to understand the future of our mountain species, an environment particularly exposed to climate change and human interventions.
Taking into account the variables involved will allow us to preserve our Alps, a precious source of biodiversity, the basis of our health ”. Until now it was not clear whether it was memory or memory that guided the choice of food in large mammals sensory perception of the presence of food. A recent research by FEM and conducted in Trentino in the woods of the Cembra valley, just published in the important journal PNAS, has shed light on the cognitive processes that underlie the decisions relating to the search for nutrition in ungulates and has shown that the search for food is mainly due to the memory of previous experiences. In his doctoral research carried out at FEM and Harvard University, Nathan Ranc together with researchers Francesca Cagnacci, Federico Ossi and Paul Moorcroft equipped 18 roe deer with GPS radio collars and tracked their movements during an experimental manipulation of nourishment availability.
The empirical study supported by mathematical models was carried out in Trentino, in Val di Cembra, in an area where regulated artificial foraging for ungulates is practiced. Researchers experimentally modified access to nutrition (maize) by closing the feeders with wooden planks, but leaving the food inside, and then reopening them ensuring continuous supply, to alternating periods of two weeks. With this simple trick, the roe deer continued to smell the presence of food without being able to eat it. The mathematical model showed that the roe deer passed during the two weeks of closure of the feeding troughs only 5% of their time at these foraging sites, a very small percentage if compared with what was found in the two weeks prior to closure, when the roe deer remained in the immediate vicinity of the feeders for 31% of their time.
"If the visits to the foraging sites - the researchers explain - had been guided by the perception of the presence of food, remained unchanged during closing, the observed sharp decline in visits would not have been found, which therefore indicates a cognitive process in memory-based nutrition seeking decisions. Furthermore, following the reopening of the feeders, the roe deer returned to frequent the same sites, although other mangers were available nearby ”. This confirms the role of memory in resource-seeking travel and suggests a preference for known sites, a process known as 'familiarity'. already pointed out in a previous publication of the research group. According to the authors, a full understanding of the processes by which animals respond to environmental changes, including the availability of resources, is essential for developing appropriate conservation and management strategies for fauna, also in consideration of the rapid climatic changes underway.