Habitat selection by Dall's sheep is influenced by multiple factors including direct and indirect climate effects.

ABSTRACT: Arctic and boreal environments are changing rapidly, which could decouple behavioral and demographic traits of animals from the resource pulses that have shaped their evolution. Dall's sheep (Ovis dalli dalli) in northwestern regions of the USA and Canada, survive long, severe winters and reproduce during summers with short growing seasons. We sought to understand the vulnerability of Dall's sheep to a changing climate in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Alaska, USA. We developed ecological hypotheses about nutritional needs, security from predators, energetic costs of movement, and thermal shelter to describe habitat selection during winter, spring, and summer and evaluated habitat and climate variables that reflected these hypotheses. We used the synoptic model of animal space use

SUBMITTER: Aycrigg JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7971871 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature