Space-use by feral cattle and horses shapes vegetation structure in a trophic rewilding area.

ABSTRACT: Feral cattle (Bos taurus) and horses (Equus ferus caballus) are commonly introduced to European rewilding areas to halt vegetation succession and to conserve light-demanding species. Yet, we still do not understand how the habitat preference of animals shapes vegetation structure at the landscape scale. Here, we used spatial preference modeling to understand drivers of space-use based on GPS-collared horses and cattle in a 120-ha rewilding area in Denmark. Using a time series of a satellite-based vegetation productivity index, we tested the ability of animal space-use to explain changes in vegetation, as well as the trend of its spatial variability at the reserve scale, as a measure of landscape-scale vegetation heterogeneity. We expected that animal space-use would be driven mainly by top

SUBMITTER: Kristensen JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12871458 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature