Lucie Debeffe
Ph.D Behavioural ecology
Research Projects
Post-doc
Post-doctoral associate - 10 month founded by the ANR grant RPDOC Roe deer behavioural Plasticity and Adaptation to Landscape change (PATCH) to Cécile Vanpé
​Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive - CNRS/Universié Claude Bernard Lyon I
« Roe deer personality traits in 3 natural populations »
Advisor: Cécile Vanpé, Jean-Michel Gaillard & Mark Hewison
Ph.D. in behavioural ecology, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse III, France
3 years contract with teaching activities, ministry grant
Laboratory Wildlife Behaviour and Ecology (Comportement et Ecologie de la Faune Sauvage CEFS-INRA)
​« Roe deer Capreolus capreolus natal and breeding dispersal in a heterogeneous landscape »
Supervisor: Mark Hewison & Richard Bon
​Master 2 "Biostatistique et Modelisation", Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III
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6 month intership in the DIZGE (DIpartimento di Zoologia e Genetica Evoluzionistica), Centro studio Casa Stabbi, (Toscana) Italy
« Evaluating wolf and fox impact on a two ungulates system in north Apennine (Toscana, Italia) »
Supervisor: Marco Apollonio & Andrea Gazzola
Ph.D.
​Master BSM
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Master 2 "Biologie Ecologie Evolutive", Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse III
6 month intership in the lab Comportement et Ecologie de la Faune Sauvage (CEFS) - INRA, France
« Roe deer natal dispersal behaviour »
Supervisor: Mark Hewison
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Master BEE
Abstract: Knowing the interaction among predators and their relationship with their prey is crucial for a right management of an ecosystem characterized by the presence of different prey and predator populations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the extent of ungulate consumption by two sympatric predators to estimate the impact of predation on the prey population. In the study area the wild ungulate community is composed of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and wild boar (Sus scrofa) coexisting with two medium-size carnivore predators: wolf (Canis lupus) and fox (Vulpes vulpes) in a mountainous area of Central Italy. 668 fox scats and 253 wolf scats were collected to evaluate the proportion of wild ungulates in their diets. An energy-consumption model was applied to estimate the number of prey consumed by wolves and foxes. Wild ungulates constituted the majority of the wolves’ diet. Whereas, plants and micro-mammals were the most common items in the foxes’ diet; ungulates were the third food item. In the study area, wolves and foxes consumed comparable numbers of prey for a total of 290±14 roe deer and 451±48 wild boar annually. These values corresponded respectively to 10% and 20% of the roe deer and wild boar population. The quantification of predator food habits is necessary in order to evaluate possible effects of predation on prey populations. Furthermore, assessing how predators meet their requirement for survival is crucial in efforts to preserve species of conservation interest and manage exploited prey population.
Key-words: bioenergetics models, consumption rate, predation impact, predators-preys relationships, scat analysis
Abstract: Dispersal is a key process for the structure and dynamics of wild populations and plays a major role in species evolution. Settlement range quality is a determinant factor of the fitness, early experience and information acquired in natal habitat may influence the choice with a processes called Natal Habitat Preference Induction (NHPI). GPS data, related to roe deer movement, allows us to test two hypotheses: The first one, about the emigration phase, assumes that dispersing yearlings have a higher mobility, inside their home range, than sedentary ones a few month before their dispersal. The second hypothesis refers to habitat selection that takes place during the emigration and travel phases, and suggests the main role of landscape in this choice. This study shows a higher mobility of future dispersing yearlings. And habitat selection analysis performed underlines the landscape structure effects, so, during dispersal travel animals tend to avoid roads and proximity to human structures and select wood proximity. For settlement range choice, a sizeable part seems to be explained by natal range similarity. However, this study remains an exploratory one and needs to be completed, notably with a higher number of individuals.
Key words: Roe deer, GPS, natal dispersal, landscape, habitat selection
Abstract: Dispersal, defined as the movements that take individuals away from their birth site permanently, is a fundamental biological process that impact population dynamic and genetic. In most populations, not all individuals disperse, and dispersers are not a random subset of the source population. The general aim of this thesis is to better understand the factors generating inter-individual variability across the three phases of the dispesal behaviour in a large herbivore specie, the European roe deer. In a heterogeneous landscape, more than 100 juveniles from a natural population were captured and equipped with a GPS collar between 2003 and 2012 and then intensively monitored during approximately ten month. This study highlights the role of internal factors (such as individual body mass, behavioural traits before dispersal or sex) and external factors (such as degree of landscape openness) across the different phases of the dispersal process (emigration, transience, immigration). A high inter-individual variability of the dispersal behaviour was observed across the whole process, from the preliminary phase to the settlement in the post-dispersal home range. Moreover, some behavioural characteristics of dispersal should reduce the direct and indirect costs associate with dispersal. Due to the important consequences on population functionning this inter-individual variability on dispersal behaviour may have, it seems essential to take into account this factor when studying dispersal.
Key-word: Movement, Dispersal, Roe deer, GPS, Inter-individual variability, Ungulate
Pdf available at : http://thesesups.ups-tlse.fr/2099/
The aim of this project is to study several personality traits in three natural roe deer populations in France. During capture in winter, behavioural measurements were measured (reaction to the capture, body temperature and heart rate), and animals were equipped with a VHF or a GPS collar before being released on site. Thanks to the unique visual colour code provided by the collar, visual observations of marked animals were done in the southeast population. In this population, during spring and/or autumn, several focal observations while individual were foraging were done to study their vigilance behaviour. Flight initiation distances (FID) were also estimated several times for these individuals. GPS data were also available for some individuals, allowing us to study their movement pattern and thus to estimate their mobility, activity or exploratory behaviour. Because behavioral observations in the field were performed in a highly heterogeneous and anthropogenic landscape the behavioral plasticity that individuals exhibited in response to this landscape heterogeneity is also investigated. The first step of this work is to estimate the repetability of each behaviour measured several times, and the second is to establish the relationships it can exist between the studied behavioural traits, in order to discuss about the existence of personalities in roe deer.
Key-word: Personality traits, FID, Roe deer, Inter-individual variability, Repetability, Vigilance, Ungulate
Post-doc
Post-doctoral fellow - 12 month
​McLoughlin lab of population ecology
University of Saskatchewan
« Fundamental ecology and evolution using ungulates as model species »
Advisor: Philip McLoughlin
My research focuses on fundamental ecology and evolution using ungulates as model species (Sable Island horses, woodland caribou). First, I will be part of the Sable Island project by studying the social dispersal behaviour of the Sable Island horses. And then I will also be part of the Caribou project by studying movement of individual caribou in the Northern Saskatchewan and their interaction with their habitat and natural predators.