Stephen Ellwood

Position: Graduate Student

DPhil Thesis: A Comparison of Fallow and Muntjac deer at high and low densities in a broad-leafed lowland wood: their diet and condition.

The core of my work is sponsored by the British Deer Society and is supported by a CASE award from the Environmental Change Network on behalf of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. I am supervised by Prof. David Macdonald (Wildlife Conservation Research Unit) and Dr Mike Morecroft (ECN, Wytham).

I will be looking at the effects of population density in fallow and muntjac deer on what they eat and on their own physical condition. In addition I hope to be able to study how population density in these two species affects the density of Roe deer. All three species live in my study area. To complement this work I will also be evaluating deer censusing techniques in order to estimate the population densities I am dealing with. As populations of Fallow, Muntjac and Roe deer are all expanding in the UK their impact on conservation areas, their own welfare and damage to agriculture and forestry are of concern. I hope that my work can contribute to the understanding required to reduce these concerns.

Recent publications

Baker, S.E., Ellwood, S.A., Watkins, R., and Macdonald, D.W. 2005a. Non-lethal control of wildlife: using chemical repellents as feeding deterrents for the European badger Meles meles. Journal of Applied Ecology 42:921-931.

Baker, S.E., Ellwood, S.A., Watkins, R.W., and Macdonald, D.W. 2005b. A dose-response trial with ziram-treated maize and free-ranging European badgers Meles meles. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 93:309-321.

Ellwood, S.A. 2004. The deer of Wytham woods: the importance of body condition. Deer 13 (1):34-36.

Macdonald, D.W., Buesching, C. D., Stopka, P., Henderson, J., Ellwood, S.A., and Baker, S.E. 2004a. Encounters between two sympatric carnivores: red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and European badgers (Meles meles). Journal of Zoology 263:385-392.

Flowerdew, J.R. and Ellwood, S.A. 2001. Impacts of woodland deer on small mammal ecology. Forestry 74(3):277-287.

Ellwood, S.A. 2003a. The deer of Wytham Woods: How can we tell what they eat? Deer 12(9):35-37.

Ellwood, S.A. 2003b. The deer of Wytham Woods: A managed decline in numbers. Deer 12(8):461-463.

Morecroft, M.D., and Taylor, M.E., Ellwood, S.A., and Quinn, S.A. 2001. Impacts of deer herbivory on ground vegetation at Wytham Woods, central England. Forestry 74(3):251-257.

Ellwood, S.A. 2000. Using a dung clearance plot method for estimating Fallow, Roe and Muntjac numbers in mixed deciduous woodland. Deer 11(8):417-423.