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European Roe Deer Shifted Between Forest and Open Ground as Risks Changed

European roe deer standing in open vegetation
Research · Ecology

Movement data from 412 European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) across Europe show that the animals adjust their use of open ground and forest according to time of day, season, human disturbance and the presence of Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx). Across the 17 populations studied, lynx risk produced a more consistent habitat response than hunting did.

The international team combined tracking data from populations exposed to four different situations: neither hunting nor lynx, hunting only, lynx only, or both hunting and lynx. For each movement step, they compared where a deer actually went with alternative locations it could have reached. They also accounted for vegetation productivity and a Human Footprint Index summarising features such as settlement, roads and land use, allowing non-lethal human disturbance to be considered separately from hunting.

Map of 17 European roe deer study sites with open and forest habitat and hunting and lynx risk sets
The 17 European study sites, with point size indicating the number of tracked roe deer and colours showing the hunting/lynx risk set. Figure 1 from Gehr et al. (2026), Landscape Ecology, CC BY 4.0.

Across all risk situations, roe deer increasingly selected open habitat from daytime through twilight to night. Where neither hunting nor lynx occurred, animals clearly avoided open areas during the day, but this avoidance weakened around twilight and disappeared at night. The pattern was strongest where the human footprint was high: open habitats were used less during daylight, while the effect of human disturbance disappeared at night.

Model results for roe deer open-habitat selection by daytime period under hunting and lynx risk
Diel predictions and model results for selection of open habitat under the four hunting/lynx risk scenarios. Figure 2 from Gehr et al. (2026), Landscape Ecology, CC BY 4.0.

Greener open areas, measured with the satellite-based Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, were selected more strongly. This relationship was particularly pronounced at twilight and at night, when the animals could reach productive feeding areas with less exposure to daytime human activity.

Lynx changed when open ground was used

In populations exposed to lynx but not hunting, roe deer selected open habitat more strongly at night than animals in the no-lynx comparison. The authors relate this to the stalking strategy of Eurasian lynx, which depends on cover and is most effective in forest and along forest edges. Although lynx predation risk is greatest at night, shifting into more open ground may reduce the predator’s advantage from concealment while still giving roe deer access to forage.

At the seasonal scale, roe deer generally selected open habitats in autumn and avoided them in winter. In the presence of lynx, however, they used open habitat more in winter than the comparison populations did. This shift may carry costs because forest provides winter refuge while food availability in open habitats is generally lower during winter.

Model results for roe deer open-habitat selection in autumn and winter under hunting and lynx risk
Seasonal predictions and model results for selection of open habitat in autumn and winter under the four hunting/lynx risk scenarios. Figure 3 from Gehr et al. (2026), Landscape Ecology, CC BY 4.0.

Hunting alone produced no consistent habitat shift

Hunting alone did not produce a clear, consistent change in the selection of open habitats at any time of day or in either autumn or winter. The researchers do not conclude that roe deer fail to respond to hunters. Instead, responses may occur through changes in activity rather than habitat choice, and hunting methods and local landscapes varied substantially among sites.

Where both hunting and lynx occurred, the pattern was more similar to lynx-only populations than to hunting-only populations. The study therefore found no evidence that animals simply traded one lethal risk against the other in a uniform way across Europe.

The authors emphasise that habitat selection and daily activity should be considered together. Predictable differences in human and predator activity can create lower-risk periods in which European roe deer gain access to food-rich habitats that are more dangerous at other times, even as land-use intensification, fragmentation and the recovery of large predators make the risk landscape more complex.

Sources and image credit

  1. Gehr, B., Smith, A. F., Ciuti, S., Muff, S., Bonnot, N. C., Ossi, F., Morellet, N., Berger, A., Borowik, T., De Groeve, J., Heurich, M., Keller, L., Kjellander, P., Kroeschel, M., Nicoloso, S., Ranc, N., Sunde, P., Torres, R. T., Gaillard, J.-M., & Cagnacci, F. (2026). Navigating multi-predator dynamic risk landscapes in anthropogenic environments: Spatio-temporal plasticity in roe deer habitat selection. Landscape Ecology, 41, 48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-026-02301-6Primary peer-reviewed open-access article published online 13 February 2026 under CC BY 4.0. The analysis used 536,545 movement steps from 412 roe deer in 17 populations across eight European countries.

Image: LubosHouska — European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) in open vegetation, photographed 9 August 2017; representative species image, not an animal from the study. Source: Wikimedia Commons. · CC0 1.0 — https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ · Source

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