Study links eucalyptus management to roe deer site use

Roe deer in Portugal’s eucalyptus plantations appear to respond less to the trees themselves than to how those stands are managed. A new paper published May 26, 2026, in Animals reports that stand-level management factors shaped roe deer site-use patterns across 375 camera-trap deployments in central Portugal during 2019 and 2020, using single-season occupancy models to separate detection from site use. The study, led by Guilherme Ares-Pereira and colleagues, adds to a growing body of work from the same research network showing that eucalyptus plantation structure and disturbance can alter how wild ungulates and other mammals use managed forest landscapes. (orcid.org)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, especially those working in wildlife health, population management, and One Health, the findings are a reminder that forestry practices can influence where free-ranging ungulates spend time, and therefore where clinicians and public agencies may see downstream effects such as nutritional stress, injury risk, reproduction changes, crop conflict, road collisions, or pathogen interfaces with livestock and companion animals. Earlier work from Portugal has linked eucalyptus plantation management and landscape structure to shifts in ungulate spatial behavior, mesocarnivore distribution, and small mammal condition, suggesting these plantation systems can shape animal contact patterns in ways relevant to surveillance and prevention. (sciencedirect.com)

What to watch: Watch for follow-on work clarifying which specific management actions, such as understory control, stand age, or disturbance timing, most strongly affect deer use and whether that translates into measurable health or disease-surveillance consequences. (link.springer.com)