core areas of habitat use : the influence of spatial scale of analysis on interpreting summer habitat selection by moose (alces alces)
abstract
i investigated summer habitat selection patterns within the home ranges of 60 gps-collared
adult female moose (alces alces) in northwestern ontario. i developed a model that
identified the ‘summer’ period for moose and i suggest and test a new approach for
objectively delineating areas of intense use, or ‘core’ areas. once summer and core areas
were established, i tested two competing hypotheses to identify differences in habitat
selected between the core areas and home range peripheries; (1) core areas represent
superior spatial configurations of habitats when compared to home range peripheries; and
(2) core areas are selected to contain a subset of ‘preferred’ forage species with higher
individual densities or a higher total density of all forage species than home range
peripheries. the study was conducted in 2 landscapes characterized by different
disturbance patterns created by different timber harvesting systems: modified “guidelines”
cut (mgc); and progressive, contiguous clear cut (pcc).
moose move more and faster during the summer than the winter to exploit available forage.
i defined moose ‘summer’ as the period during the calendar year when an animal maintains
a rate of movement greater than the annual mean. using a sub-sample (n=32) of animals
collared in 2000,1 determined 1 may 2000 as the median date for the ‘winter-summer’
transition (range: 2 april-24 may) and the median transition from ‘summer-winter’ was 25
august 2000 (range: 1 aug-23 october).
moose home ranges were designated using a 90% adaptive kernel. within the home range,
moose devote a disproportionate amount of time to a fraction of the total area.
collections
- retrospective theses [1604]