The relationship between habitat choice and lifetime reproductive success in female red deer

In non-territorial species, individuals can move freely and should be distr ibuted in an ideal free manner between habitats and areas with respect to r esources that influence lifetime reproductive success (LRS). Consequently, no relationship between diet quality and LRS should be expected. However, t here have been no attempts to test this prediction. The present paper inves tigates the relationship between forage habitat use and LRS in red deer (Ce rvus elaphus) hinds within three neighbouring areas on the Isle of Rum whic h differed in their amounts of high-quality-forage habitat. Within areas, h inds move widely and have access to the same resources. We found no correla tion between LRS of individual hinds and their use of high-quality-forage h abitat (i.e. short Agrostis/Festuca grassland). Our analysis suggests that high hind densities on short Agrostis/Festuca grassland offset any advantag es of increased access to preferred forage. These results support the hypot hesis that red deer hinds are distributed in an ideal free manner with resp ect to the use of high-quality-forage habitat. However, hinds rarely leave areas where they are born, and the analysis suggests that constraints in ch anging areas hindered an ideal free distribution on a larger spatial scale. Consequently, mean LRS was not the same within the three investigated area s: one area, with a low amount of short Agrostis/Festuca grassland and a lo w hind density, contributed more male offspring (and more total offspring) per hind to the population than the other two areas.