Modeling fence location and density at a regional scale for use in wildlife management.

ABSTRACT: Barbed and woven wire fences, common structures across western North America, act as impediments to wildlife movements. In particular, fencing influences pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) daily and seasonal movements, as well as modifying habitat selection. Because of fencing's impacts to pronghorn and other wildlife, it is a potentially important factor in both wildlife movement and habitat selection models. At this time, no geospatial fencing data is available at regional scales. Consequently, we constructed a regional fence model using a series of land tenure assumptions for the Hi-Line region of northern Montana--an area consisting of 13 counties over 103,400 km(2). Randomized 3.2 km long transects (n = 738) on both paved and unpaved roads were driven to collect information on habitat,

SUBMITTER: Poor EE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3885515 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature