How fallow deer (Dama dama) achieve their distribution in the Preserve of Castelporziano (Italy)? Fully-explicit spatial models reveal that environmental factors prevail on optimal behaviour.

The Istituto Nazionale per la Fauna Selvatica performs consulting and research activities to promote the knowledge and the conservation of wildlife with special reference to mammals and birds. I'm working in the mammal section of the Institute and I carry on researches on the use of space, habitat and population dynamics of wild ungulates (red, roe and fallow deer, wild boars). In the last years I was interested in the problem of population estimate of wildlife population using distance sampling. At Castelporziano I developed a long-term research on ungulates of Mediterranean using capture-mark-recapture to investigate population dynamics of fallow deer and wild boar. Recently we started a project to use GPS-GSM collar to investigate habitat selection of red deer. Together with field work I'm very much interested in developing statistical and mathematical models. A recent approach was to use distance sampling data to investigate local density to be correlated with short term variation in habitat quality.