Acta Scientiarum Polonorum
Silvarum Colendarum Ratio et Industria Lignaria

This is the analysis of differences in the age structure and in the development of body weight and antler weight and form in male roe deer harvested in the second decade of the 21st century in areas with different forest cover. The roe bucks were shot in accordance with the principles of selective hunting binding in Poland in 2009–2017. In the investigated forest areas, the intensity of culling young and middle­aged males was the same (41%), while in the agricultural areas the most intense culling was for middle­aged individuals (48%). As a result, four­pointers (41%) and bucks with non­bifurcated antlers (34%) were most often harvested in the forest area, while it was mainly six­pointers (49%) and four­pointers (37%) in the agricultural area. In the forest area, body weight increased between young and middle­aged individuals, while in the agricultural areas it increased also between the middle­aged and older ones. It probably resulted from better foraging conditions in the agricultural land. In turn, the weight of antlers in both areas increased only between young and middle­aged bucks, while the culmination of antler development in Poland occurs in older age classes. The implementation of selective hunting of roe deer males in the studied areas can therefore be considered faulty. When making changes, it is worth using a positive relationship found in this study between body weightand the form of antlers and thus protect the strongest males in the group of young and middle ages, i.e. sixpointers. The changes are desirable because the new rules of selective hunting introduced in Poland in 2018 went in the opposite direction and made it easier to kill bucks with six­point antlers from 2 to 5 years of age.