Hierarchy in Structuring of Resource Selection: Understanding Elk Selection Across Space, Time, and Movement...

Area of Science:

• Animal Ecology
• Movement Ecology
• Behavioral Ecology

Background:

• Animal movement is crucial in ecology, with strategies like residency, nomadism, and migration.
• Understanding how landscape patterns influence fine-scale resource selection, especially in partially migratory systems, is challenging.
• Partially migratory systems, with coexisting residents and migrants, offer insights into these complex behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess variation in resource selection behavior within and among Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus canadensis) herds.
• To model fine-scale seasonal resource selection and compare strategy-specific behaviors.
• To quantify behavioral differentiation across movement strategies, seasons, herds, and covariates using a consistency score.

Main Methods:

• Utilized tracking data from four Rocky Mountain elk herds in Colorado, USA.
• Modeled fine-scale seasonal resource selection using resource selection functions.
• Employed a consistency score to measure behavioral differentiation across various factors.

Main Results:

• Found significant variation in movement strategy frequency and resource selection behavior within and among elk herds.
• Elk consistently avoided human development and roads at fine scales, selecting productive areas in summer.
• Behavioral divergence was greatest among herds, followed by seasons, and then movement strategies.

Conclusions:

• Elk behavior is complex and context-dependent, varying across space, time, and movement strategies.
• Elk showed more uniform responses to resource productivity compared to greater differentiation in responses to anthropogenic factors.
• This study enhances understanding of elk behavior and the hierarchical influences of space and time on ecological strategies.