Temporal scales, trade-offs, and functional responses in red deer habitat selection

Animals selecting habitats often have to consider many factors, e.g., food and cover for safety. However, each habitat type often lacks an adequate mixture of these factors. Analyses of habitat selection using resource selection functions (RSFs) for animal radiotelemetry data typically ignore trade-...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Ecology (Durham) Vol. 90; no. 3; pp. 699 - 710
Main Authors:	Godvik, Inger Maren Rivrud, Loe, Leif Egil, Vik, Jon Olay, Veiberg, Vebjorn, Langvatn, Rolf, Mysterud, Atle
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Washington, DC Ecological Society of America 01-03-2009
Subjects:	Animal and plant ecology Animal, plant and microbial ecology Animals Behavior, Animal - physiology Biodiversity Biological and medical sciences Biotelemetry Cervus elaphus Deer Deer - physiology Ecosystem Feeding Behavior - physiology Female females Forage Forest habitats Forests Functional responses Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology General aspects grazing habitat preferences Habitat selection Habitats large mammals Logistic Models Mammalia mixed-effects logistic regression Norway Pastures Pixels Predation radio frequency identification red deer Regression analysis resource selection functions resource use Studies Telemetry Time Factors trade-offs Twilight ungulates Vertebrates: general zoology, morphology, phylogeny, systematics, cytogenetics, geographical distribution Wildlife ecology wildlife food habits wildlife habitats Winter Norway Europe Functional response trade-offs resource use Habitat selection mixed-effects logistic regression red deer resource selection functions large mammals Logistic regression Vertebrata Mammalia Norway ungulates Cervus elaphus Artiodactyla Ungulata
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Summary:	Animals selecting habitats often have to consider many factors, e.g., food and cover for safety. However, each habitat type often lacks an adequate mixture of these factors. Analyses of habitat selection using resource selection functions (RSFs) for animal radiotelemetry data typically ignore trade-offs, and the fact that these may change during an animal's daily foraging and resting rhythm on a short-term basis. This may lead to changes in the relative use of habitat types if availability differs among individual home ranges, called functional responses in habitat selection. Here, we identify such functional responses and their underlying behavioral mechanisms by estimating RSFs through mixed-effects logistic regression of telemetry data on 62 female red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Norway. Habitat selection changed with time of day and activity, suggesting a trade-off in habitat selection related to forage quantity or quality vs. shelter. Red deer frequently used pastures offering abundant forage and little canopy cover during nighttime when actively foraging, while spending much of their time in forested habitats with less forage but more cover during daytime when they are more often inactive. Selection for pastures was higher when availability was low and decreased with increasing availability. Moreover, we show for the first time that in the real world with forest habitats also containing some forage, there was both increasing selection of pastures (i.e., not proportional use) and reduced time spent in pastures (i.e., not constant time use) with lowered availability of pastures within the home range. Our study demonstrates that landscape-level habitat composition modifies the trade-off between food and cover for large herbivorous mammals. Consequently, landscapes are likely to differ in their vulnerability to crop damage and threat to biodiversity from grazing.
Bibliography:	Present address: Centre for Integrative Genetics (CIGENE), Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, N‐1432 Ås, Norway. ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0012-9658 1939-9170
DOI:	10.1890/08-0576.1