Censusing roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus ) populations for hunting management: a local experiment in order to increase the benefit/cost ratio

Abstract At present, in the most part of their Italian range, roe deer are censused for hunting purposes by observations from fixed points during spring green sprouting. Difficulties arise because it is impossible to count the entire population, due to the huge number of observers needed to cover all the observable area (i.e. open lands) in any managed district. In three study areas, representative of the most common habitat situation found in the hunting districts of the province of Forli-Cesena, we compared the results of exhaustive countings with the results obtained by taking into account only about a half of the points (and therefore of the observers) required for the complete count. The average roe deer's density obtained was 21.8/km² from complete censuses and 20.8/km² from partial censuses, suggesting that this method remains highly reliable which allows a simplification of censusing.