Damage caused by sika deer (Cervus nippon yesoensis) at a young larch [Larix leptolepis] stand in eastern Hokkaido, Northern Japan

Abstract Conifer plantations have suffered serious damage by sika deer (Cervus nippon yesoensis) in Hokkaido. We surveyed damage caused by the deer at a young Japanese larch (Larix kaempferi) stand and clarified some of its characters. The main type of damage was bark stripping on trunks and branches. New damage of this type was observed in the surveys in May and June, while it was never observed in October and November. Wounds on trunks and branches were observed at heights lower than 200 cm above the ground, and they were especially concentrated between 60 and 140 cm high. A lot of the wounds were xylem-exposed ones, and as a result, almost all of the debarked trees had exposed-xylem. We did not find any trunks that had suffered complete girdling by sika deer. The percentage of debarked trees in each DBH class suggested that bark stripping by sika deer occurred mainly on trunks when larches were small in DBH (mainly 2-6 cm), and that the damaged part gradually changed from trunks to branches as the larches became larger in DBH. Few fraying and no browsing damage were observed at the stand in any season.