Abstract
Free-ranging cervids acquire most of their essential minerals through forage consumption, though occasionally seek other sources to account for seasonal mineral deficiencies. Mineral sources occur as natural geological deposits (i.e., licks) or as anthropogenic mineral supplements. In both scenarios, these sources commonly serve as focal sites for visitation. We monitored 11 licks in Rocky Mountain National Park, north-central Colorado, using trail cameras to quantify daily visitation indices (DVI) and soil consumption indices (SCI) for Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) during summer 2006 and documented elk, mule deer, and moose (Alces alces) visiting licks. Additionally, soil samples were collected, and mineral concentrations were compared to discern levels that explain rates of visitation. Relationships between response variables; DVI and SCI, and explanatory variables; elevation class, moisture class, period of study, and concentrations of minerals were examined. We found that DVI and SCI were greatest at two wet, low-elevation licks exhibiting relatively high concentrations of manganese and sodium. Because cervids are known to seek Na from soils, we suggest our observed association of Mn with DVI and SCI was a likely consequence of deer and elk seeking supplemental dietary Na. Additionally, highly utilized licks such as these provide an area of concentrated cervid occupation and interaction, thus increasing risk for environmental transmission of infectious pathogens such as chronic wasting disease, which has been shown to be shed in the saliva, urine, and feces of infected cervids.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ayotte, J. B., Parker, K. L., Arocena, J. M., & Gillingham, M. P. (2008). Use of natural licks by four species ungulates in northern British Columbia. Journal of Mammalogy, 89(4), 1041–1050.
Ayotte, J. B., Parker, K. L., & Gillingham, M. P. (2006). Chemical composition of lick soils: Functions of soil ingestion by four ungulate species. Journal of Mammalogy, 87(5), 878–888.
Burnham, K. P., & Anderson, D. R. (2002). Model selection and multimodel inference: A practical information-theoretic approach (2nd ed.). New York: Springer.
Campbell, T. A., & Hewitt, D. G. (2004). Mineral metabolism by white-tailed deer fed diets of guajillo. Southwestern Naturalist, 49(3), 367–375.
Case, G. W. (1938). The use of salt in controlling the distribution of game. Journal of Wildlife Management, 2(3), 79–81.
Colorado Division of Wildlife. (2010a). 2010 CWD prevalence for deer by DAU. Colorado Division of Wildlife. http://wildlife.state.co.us/SiteCollectionDocuments/DOW/Hunting/BigGame/CWD/PDF/TestResults/CWDDeer2010.pdf. Accessed April 25, 2012.
Colorado Division of Wildlife. (2010b). 2010 CWD prevalence for elk by DAU. Colorado Division of Wildlife. http://wildlife.state.co.us/SiteCollectionDocuments/DOW/Hunting/BigGame/CWD/PDF/TestResults/CWDElk2010.pdf. Accessed April 25, 2012.
Davies, P., & Brown, D. R. (2009). Manganese enhances prion protein survival in model soils and increases prion infectivity to cells. PLoS One, 4(10), e7518.
DeJoia, C., Moreaux, B., O’Connell, K., & Bessen, R. A. (2006). Prion infection of oral and nasal mucosa. Journal of Virology, 80(9), 4546–4556.
Denton, D. A., Blair-West, J. R., McKinley, M. J., & Nelson, J. F. (1986). Physiological analysis of bone appetite (osteophagia). BioEssays, 4(1), 40–42.
Fischer, J. W., & Lavelle, M. J. (2007). Mineral licks: Evaluating their role in disease transmission. ArcNews Online, 30(1).
Haley, N. J., Mathiason, C. K., Zabel, M. D., Telling, B. C., & Hoover, E. A. (2009). Detection of sub-clinical CWD infection in conventional test-negative deer long after oral exposure to urine and feces from CWD+ deer. PLoS One, 4(11), e7990.
Henshaw, J., & Ayeni, J. (1971). Some aspects of big-game utilization of mineral licks in Yankari Game Preserve, Nigeria. East African Wildlife Journal, 9(1), 73–82.
Hsu, P. H. (1989). Aluminum oxides and oxyhydroxides. In J. B. Dixon & S. B. Weed (Eds.), Minerals in soil environments (pp. 331–378). Madison, WI: Soil Science Society of America.
Imrie, C. E., Korre, A., & Munoz-Melendez, G. (2009). Spatial correlation between the prevalence of transmissible spongiform diseases and British soil geochemistry. Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 31, 133–145.
Johnson, C. J., Phillips, K. E., Schramm, P. T., McKenzie, D., Aiken, J. M., & Pedersen, J. A. (2006). Prions adhere to soil minerals and remain infectious. PLoS Pathogens, 2(4), e32.
Jones, R. L., & Hanson, H. C. (1985). Mineral licks, geophagy, and biogeochemistry of North American ungulates. Ames: Iowa State University.
Jones, R. L., & Weeks, H. P. (1985). Ca, Mg, and P in the annual diet of deer in south-central Indiana. Journal of Wildlife Management, 49(1), 129–133.
Kincaid, R. (1988). Macro elements for ruminants. In D. C. Church (Ed.), The ruminant animal: Digestive physiology and nutrition (pp. 326–341). NJ: Englewood Cliffs.
Klaus, G., & Schmid, B. (1998). Geophagy at natural licks and mammal ecology: A review. Mammalia, 62(4), 481–497.
Larkins, K. F. (1997). Patterns of elk movement and distribution in and adjacent to the eastern boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park (p. 155). M.A. thesis, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley.
Leach, S. P., Salman, M. D., & Hamar, D. (2007). Trace elements and prion diseases: A review of the interactions of copper, manganese and zinc with prion protein. Animal Health Research Reviews, 7(1/2), 97–105.
Littell, R. C., Milliken, G. A., Stroup, W. W., Wolfinger, R. D., & Schabenberger, O. (2006). SAS for mixed models (2nd ed.). Cary, NC: SAS Institute.
Mathiason, C. K., Powers, J. G., Dahmes, S. J., Osborn, D. A., Miller, K. V., Warren, R. J., et al. (2006). Infectious prions in the saliva and blood of deer with chronic wasting disease. Science, 314(5796), 133–136.
McCaughey, S. A., & Tordoff, M. G. (2002). Magnesium appetite in the rat. Appetite, 38(1), 29–38.
Miller, M. W., Williams, E. S., Hobbs, N. T., & Wolfe, L. L. (2004). Environmental sources of prion transmission in mule deer. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 10(6), 1003–1006.
National Cooperative Soil Survey. (2013). National cooperative soil characterization database. http://ncsslabdatamart.sc.egov.usda.gov. Accessed April 20, 2013.
National Research Council. (2007). Nutrient requirements of small ruminants: Sheep, goats, cervids, and new world camelids. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Natural Resources Conservation Service. (1999). Soil taxonomy: A basic system of soil classification for making and interpreting soil surveys (2nd ed.). US Department of Agriculture Handbook No. 436.
Natural Resources Conservation Service. (2010). United States Department of Agriculture. Official Soil Series Descriptions. http://soils.usda.gov/technical/classification/osd/index.html. Accessed April 20, 2013.
Nichols, T. A., Spraker, T. R., Rigg, T. D., Meyerett-Reid, C., Hoover, C., Michel, B., et al. (2013). Intranasal inoculation of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) with lyophilized chronic wasting disease prion particulate complexed to montmorillonite clay. PLos One, 8(5), e62455.
Pedersen, J. A., McMahon, K. D., & Benson, C. H. (2006). Prions: Novel pathogens of environmental concern. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 132(967), 967–969.
Provenza, F. D., & Villalba, J. J. (2006). Foraging in domestic herbivores: Linking the internal and external milieux. In V. Bels (Ed.), Feeding in domestic vertebrates: From structure to behaviour. Wallingford, Oxfordshire: CABI Publishing.
Pulford, B., Spraker, T. R., Wyckoff, A. C., Meyerett, C., Bender, H., Ferguson, A., et al. (2012). Detection of PrPCWD in feces from naturally exposed Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus Nelsoni) using protein misfolding cyclic amplification. Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 48(2), 425–434.
Schramm, P. T., Johnson, C. J., Mathews, N. E., McKenzie, D., Aiken, J. M., & Pedersen, J. A. (2006). Potential role of soil in the transmission of prion disease. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, 64(1), 135–152.
Schulkin, J. (2001). Calcium hunger: Behavioral and biological regulation. New York: Cambridge University.
Schultz, S. R., & Johnson, M. K. (1992). Effects of supplemental mineral licks on white-tailed deer. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 20(3), 303–308.
Schwertmann, U., & Taylor, R. M. (1989). Iron oxides. In J. B. Dixon & S. B. Weed (Eds.), Minerals in soil environments (pp. 379–439). Madison, WI: Soil Science Society of America.
Sigurdson, C., Williams, E. S., Miller, M. W., Spraker, T. R., O’Rourke, K. I., & Hoover, E. A. (1999). Oral transmission and early lymphoid tropism of chronic wasting disease in mule deer fawns (Odocoileus hemionus). Journal of General Virology, 80(10), 2757–2764.
Spraker, T. R., Miller, M. W., Williams, E. S., Getzy, D. M., Adrian, W. J., Schoonveld, G. G., et al. (1997). Spongiform encephalopathy in free-ranging mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and Rocky Mountain Elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) in northcentral Colorado. Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 33(1), 1–6.
Stephenson, J. D., Mills, A., Eksteen, J. J., Milewski, A. V., & Myburgh, J. G. (2011). Geochemistry of mineral licks at Loskop Dam Nature Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 33, 49–53.
Tamgüney, G., Miller, M. W., Wolfe, L. L., Sirochman, T. M., Glidden, D. V., Palmer, C., et al. (2009). Asymptomatic deer excrete infectious prions in faeces. Nature, 461, 529–533.
Tordoff, M. G. (2001). Calcium: Taste, intake, and appetite. Physiological Reviews, 81(4), 1567–1597.
van Raij, B. (1998). Bioavailable tests: Alternatives to standard soil extractions. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 29(11–14), 1553–1570.
VerCauteren, K. C., Burke, P. W., Phillips, G. E., Fischer, J. W., Seward, N. W., Wunder, B. A., et al. (2007). Elk use of wallows: Implications for disease transmission. Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 43(4), 784–788.
White, S. N., O’Rourke, K. I., Gidlewski, T., VerCauteren, K. C., Mousel, M. R., Phillips, G. E., et al. (2010). Increased risk of chronic wasting disease in Rocky Mountain elk associated with decreased magnesium and increased manganese in brain tissue. Canadian Journal of Veterinary Research, 74(1), 50–53.
Wolfe, L. L., Conner, M. M., Bedwell, C. L., Lukacs, P. M., & Miller, M. W. (2010). Select tissue mineral concentrations and chronic wasting disease status in mule deer from north-central Colorado. Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 46(3), 1029–1034.
Acknowledgments
We thank Terry Terrell and Judy Visty of the United States (US), National Park Service for facilitating research and access to Rocky Mountain National Park. Reviews by T. Atwood and S. Leach strengthened the manuscript. All procedures were approved by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service-Wildlife Services-National Wildlife Research Center’s (NWRC) Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (QA-1267). All funding was provided by the NWRC. Mention of companies or commercial products does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the USDA over others not mentioned. USDA neither guarantees nor warrants the standard of any product mentioned. Product names are mentioned solely to report factually on available data and to provide specific information. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendix
Appendix
Variables (Var) associated with mineral licks, including mineral concentrations (Al–Zn, mg/kg) at licks (L) and reference sites (Ref), elevation of lick (E, m), elevation class (EC), moisture class (MC), daily visitation index (DVI), and soil consumption index (SCI) during study periods 1 (PD1) and 2 (PD2) for Rocky Mountain elk (C. elaphus) and mule deer (O. virginianus) in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, June–September 2006. Period 1 occurred June 29–July 27, 2006, and period 2 occurred August 23–September 16, 2006.
Site | Sample | Al | Ca | Cd | Cu | Cr | Fe | K | Mg | Mn | Na | Ni |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A | Lick | 244 | 881 | 0.255 | 49.2 | 0.584 | 1,046 | 189 | 52.3 | 11.0 | 199 | 1.72 |
Ref | 125 | 867 | 0.008 | 5.85 | 0.589 | 828 | 233 | 112 | 78.4 | 246 | <0.01 | |
B | Lick | 288 | 714 | 0.254 | 40.0 | 0.939 | 1,159 | 442 | 43.0 | 9.43 | 208 | 1.49 |
Ref | 127 | 1,008 | 0.001 | 10.1 | 0.355 | 543 | 488 | 127 | 115 | 264 | <0.01 | |
C | Lick | 229 | 935 | 0.257 | 47.1 | 0.375 | 1,437 | 193 | 91.7 | 18.4 | 382 | 1.35 |
Ref | 61.5 | 2,130 | 0.340 | 5.86 | 0.171 | 419 | 249 | 231 | 36.4 | 260 | 0.17 | |
D | Lick | 106 | 1,072 | 0.041 | 12.4 | 0.637 | 504 | 345 | 128 | 41.2 | 242 | 0.04 |
Ref | 61.1 | 1,846 | 0.113 | 8.19 | 0.306 | 392 | 322 | 194 | 37.6 | 252 | 0.18 | |
E | Lick | 55.3 | 1,001 | 0.108 | 18.3 | 0.299 | 578 | 110 | 155 | 8.23 | 186 | 0.86 |
Ref | 83.7 | 1,419 | 0.231 | 9.37 | 0.152 | 514 | 353 | 150 | 23.8 | 276 | 0.04 | |
F | Lick | 41.3 | 2,066 | 0.109 | 18.3 | 0.255 | 739 | 145 | 223 | 54.5 | 443 | <0.01 |
Ref | 91.4 | 1,566 | 0.035 | 50.3 | 0.28 | 1,056 | 262 | 124 | 81.1 | 210 | 0.44 | |
G | Lick | 41.1 | 2,061 | 0.003 | 13.1 | 0.180 | 577 | 162 | 393 | 84.4 | 482 | 0.06 |
Ref | 166 | 1,024 | 0.090 | 11.8 | 0.39 | 833 | 245 | 139 | 39.1 | 269 | <0.01 | |
H | Lick | 259 | 510 | 0.038 | 11.0 | 0.245 | 223 | 171 | 89.5 | 14.0 | 245 | 0.05 |
Ref | 58.9 | 1,219 | 0.003 | 11.9 | 0.26 | 700 | 283 | 183 | 97.9 | 164 | <0.01 | |
I | Lick | 86.3 | 3,381 | 0.040 | 25.8 | 0.346 | 1,486 | 823 | 347 | 43.4 | 377 | 1.51 |
Ref | 51.7 | 3,657 | 0.069 | 66.3 | 0.37 | 2,486 | 362 | 685 | 177 | 432 | 1.28 | |
J | Lick | 105 | 915 | 0.027 | 18.0 | 0.662 | 622 | 202 | 97.0 | 39.0 | 178 | <0.01 |
Ref | 65.0 | 2,507 | 0.107 | 24.1 | 0.23 | 519 | 474 | 187 | 84.2 | 272 | 0.02 | |
K | Lick | 6.29 | 3,537 | 0.066 | 13.9 | 0.042 | 90.9 | 81.8 | 437 | 2.78 | 156 | 0.78 |
Ref | 108 | 1,657 | 0.340 | 13.5 | 0.24 | 584 | 244 | 122 | 46.5 | 274 | 0.04 |
Site | Sample | P | Zn | E | EC | MC | Daily visitation index | Soil consumption index | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Elk PD1 | Elk PD2 | Deer PD1 | Deer PD2 | Elk PD1 | Elk PD2 | Deer PD1 | Deer PD2 | |||||||
A | Lick | 6.30 | 5.64 | 3,476 | High | Wet | 2.448 | 0.846 | 0 | 0 | 0.552 | 0.053 | 0 | 0 |
Ref | 12.0 | 3.07 | ||||||||||||
B | Lick | 6.30 | 4.40 | 3,478 | High | Wet | 2.709 | 1.582 | 0 | 0 | 0.973 | 1.16 | 0 | 0 |
Ref | 10.2 | 3.07 | ||||||||||||
C | Lick | 7.20 | 9.50 | 3,415 | High | Wet | 0.076 | 0.502 | 0 | 0 | 0.076 | 0.151 | 0 | 0 |
Ref | 12.0 | 19.5 | ||||||||||||
D | Lick | 6.30 | 3.24 | 3,480 | High | Dry | 0.28 | 0.412 | 0 | 0 | 0.14 | 0.183 | 0 | 0 |
Ref | 12.0 | 7.85 | ||||||||||||
E | Lick | 8.40 | 4.68 | 3,492 | High | Wet | 0.138 | 0.204 | 0 | 0 | 0.034 | 0.122 | 0 | 0 |
Ref | 9.30 | 10.6 | ||||||||||||
F | Lick | 7.50 | 2.22 | 3,123 | Low | Wet | 0.465 | 3.418 | 1.718 | 1.606 | 0.143 | 3.006 | 1.682 | 1.936 |
Ref | 12.9 | 15.5 | ||||||||||||
G | Lick | 7.50 | 1.66 | 3,111 | Low | Wet | 0.646 | 7.27 | 1.342 | 1.72 | 0.845 | 8.99 | 2.038 | 2.502 |
Ref | 12.0 | 4.07 | ||||||||||||
H | Lick | 12.0 | 1.60 | 3,093 | Low | Dry | 0 | 1.529 | 0.095 | 0 | 0 | 0.127 | 0 | 0 |
Ref | 16.8 | 6.31 | ||||||||||||
I | Lick | 7.20 | 6.59 | 3,026 | Low | Dry | 0 | 1.133 | 0.074 | 0 | 0 | 0.496 | 0 | 0 |
Ref | 24.8 | 29.3 | ||||||||||||
J | Lick | 7.50 | 1.28 | 3,524 | High | Dry | 1.004 | 1.234 | 0 | 0 | 0.521 | 0.617 | 0 | 0 |
Ref | 8.4 | 14.8 | ||||||||||||
K | Lick | 7.50 | 4.77 | 3,522 | High | Dry | 0.261 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.149 | 0.207 | 0 | 0 |
Ref | 10.1 | 18.9 | ||||||||||||
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lavelle, M.J., Phillips, G.E., Fischer, J.W. et al. Mineral licks: motivational factors for visitation and accompanying disease risk at communal use sites of elk and deer. Environ Geochem Health 36, 1049–1061 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-014-9600-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-014-9600-0