Disentangling woodland caribou movements in response to clearcuts and roads across temporal scales.

ABSTRACT: Although prey species typically respond to the most limiting factors at coarse spatiotemporal scales while addressing biological requirements at finer scales, such behaviour may become challenging for species inhabiting human altered landscapes. We investigated how woodland caribou, a threatened species inhabiting North-American boreal forests, modified their fine-scale movements when confronted with forest management features (i.e. clearcuts and roads). We used GPS telemetry data collected between 2004 and 2010 on 49 female caribou in a managed area in Québec, Canada. Movements were studied using a use--availability design contrasting observed steps (i.e. line connecting two consecutive locations) with random steps (i.e. proxy of immediate habitat availability). Although caribou mostly av

SUBMITTER: Beauchesne D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3818373 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature