Eucalyptus plantations, the second most economically important exotic tree in Europe, cover circa 1,5 million hectares on this continent. However, little is known about their effect on the ecological patterns of widely distributed and increasing populations of wild ungulates. This lack of knowledge jeopardizes our ability to correctly manage these populations in increasingly ubiquitous exotic forests. We aimed to understand how exotic forestry plantations influence ungulates spatial and temporal dimensions of their niche and determine how the species interactions may be changed by these artificial systems. We used roe deer and red deer as wildlife models, the Portuguese Eucalyptus plantation as standards for forestry plantations, and camera-trapping, occupancy modeling, and kernel density estimators as tools to fulfill our goals. Eucalyptus plantations had a strong effect on roe deer and red deer spatial behavior when compared to areas dominated by native vegetation. Both species seem to avoid disturbed areas such as agricultural land and Eucalyptus plantations. Even when using plantations, they shift their activity to reduce human encounters. Furthermore, plantations are not a homogeneous landcover, and thus distinct production phases of Eucalyptus plantations affect species interactions and activity patterns differently. Our results show that the pre-harvesting phases seem to be the more critical period for deer. Thus, production forest managers must guarantee that plantation structure encompasses areas with different tree ages to minimize this effect and fulfill deer’s food and cover requirements. Forestry activities should avoid dawn and dusk, to minimize disturbance and to reduce the negative interaction between sympatric guild members, by allowing species to be sparsely distributed (and not clustered in the few undisturbed patches). Plantations should include dispersed native patches to which animals may move in search of food and refuge, therefore creating discontinuities within plantations.

桉树种植园是欧洲经济上第二重要的外来树种，在这片大陆上占地约150 万公顷。然而，人们对它们对广泛分布和不断增加的野生有蹄类动物的生态模式的影响知之甚少。这种知识的缺乏会危及我们在越来越普遍的异国森林中正确管理这些种群的能力。我们旨在了解外来林业种植园如何影响有蹄类动物生态位的空间和时间维度，并确定这些人工系统如何改变物种相互作用。我们使用狍和马鹿作为野生动物模型，葡萄牙桉树种植园作为林业种植园的标准，相机捕捉、占用建模和内核密度估计器作为实现我们目标的工具。与以原生植被为主的地区相比，桉树种植园对狍和马鹿的空间行为产生了强烈的影响。这两个物种似乎都避开了受干扰的地区，例如农田和桉树种植园。即使在使用种植园时，它们也会转移活动以减少人类接触。此外，种植园不是均匀的土地覆盖，因此桉树的不同生产阶段种植园对物种相互作用和活动模式的影响不同。我们的结果表明，收获前阶段似乎是鹿的更关键时期。因此，生产林经营者必须保证种植园结构包含不同树龄的区域，以尽量减少这种影响并满足鹿的食物和覆盖要求。林业活动应避免黎明和黄昏，以尽量减少干扰并减少同域公会成员之间的负面互动，允许物种稀疏分布（而不是聚集在少数未受干扰的斑块中）。种植园应包括分散的原生斑块，动物可能会前往这些斑块寻找食物和避难所，从而在种植园内造成不连续性。