Key message Drivers of the abundance and richness of tree-related microhabitats are similar in mountain forests of Europe and North America and their occurrence may be explained by tree functional groups. Abstract A common approach to support forest-dwelling species in managed forests is to preserve valuable habitat trees. To assess the quality of habitat trees, a hierarchical typology of tree-related microhabitats (TreMs) is applied in the European context for inventory standardization. The first aim of this study was to evaluate whether it is possible to use this hierarchical typology as a standard protocol regardless of location, which is important for potentially standardizing future studies of TreMs, by testing whether the typology could be applied to the western North American mountain forests of Idaho. The second aim of the study was to analyse drivers that influence TreMs in forests of the region. Thirdly, we assessed whether the occurrence of TreMs could be explained by functional groups of trees across the western mountain forests of Idaho and Central European mountain forests, using TreM inventory data previously collected in the Black Forest, Germany. Abundance and richness of TreMs per tree were analyzed as a function of tree species, live status (dead vs. live trees), diameter at breast height (DBH), and site factors (latitude and altitude). Our results show that the TreM typology could be applied with slight modifications in the forests of Idaho. The abundance and richness of TreMs per tree increased with DBH. Snags offered more TreMs per tree than live trees. We were able to group tree species from the two continents in functional groups that were related to the occurrence of certain TreMs. Tree functional groups offer an opportunity to predict the role of certain tree species for habitat provision through TreMs. Combinations of trees from different functional groups could be used to optimize provisioning of TreMs within forest stands.

Airborne lidar is often used to calculate forest metrics about trees, but it may also provide a wealth of information about the space between trees. Forest canopy gaps are defined by the absence of vegetative structure and serve important roles for wildlife, such as facilitating animal movement. Forest canopy gaps also occur around snags, keystone structures that provide important substrates to wildlife species for breeding, roosting and foraging. We wanted to test a method for quantifying canopy gaps around individual snags and live trees, with the working hypothesis that snags would have more gaps surrounding them overall than live trees. We evaluated canopy gaps around individual snags (n = 270) and live trees (n = 2,186) and evaluated correlations between canopy structure and snag occurrence in dense conifer stands of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, United States. We paired airborne lidar with ground reference data collected at fixed‐radius plots (n = 53) to evaluate local gap structure. The r package ForestGapR was used to quantify canopy gaps throughout the canopy to determine where the differences were greatest. A canopy space profile was created for each tree by mapping gaps (a) vertically every 2 m in height (2–50 m above‐ground), and (b) horizontally across small (16 m2), medium (36 m2) and large (64 m2) footprint sizes. Our results suggest that this method is robust for quantifying canopy gaps around individual trees. The canopy space profiles were distinctly different for snags and live trees, with more canopy gaps within the area surrounding snags relative to live trees. The greatest differences occurred at mid‐canopy heights (~20 m above‐ground) and at the smallest footprint size (16 m2). These results show potential to improve the understanding of gap dynamics in closed‐canopy conifer forests, and we suggest that snag modelling could be improved by incorporating lidar‐derived canopy gap analyses alongside existing methodologies.

Standing dead trees (known as snags) are historically difficult to map and model using airborne laser scanning (ALS), or lidar. Specific snag characteristics are important for wildlife; for instance, a larger snag with a broken top can serve as a nesting platform for raptors. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether characteristics such as top intactness could be inferred from discrete-return ALS data. We collected structural information for 198 snags in closed-canopy conifer forest plots in Idaho. We selected 13 lidar metrics within 5 m diameter point clouds to serve as predictor variables in random forest (RF) models to classify snags into four groups by size (small (<40 cm diameter) or large (≥40 cm diameter)) and intactness (intact or broken top) across multiple iterations. We conducted these models first with all snags combined, and then ran the same models with only small or large snags. Overall accuracies were highest in RF models with large snags only (77%), but kappa statistics for all models were low (0.29–0.49). ALS data alone were not sufficient to identify top intactness for large snags; future studies combining ALS data with other remotely sensed data to improve classification of snag characteristics important for wildlife is encouraged.

Remote sensing technologies are increasingly able to measure environmental characteristics important for wildlife, but remain limited in measuring small‐scale structures like tree cavities. Tree cavities are essential structures in many systems, including use for breeding and roosting by multiple animal species that vary in size. However, obtaining cavity dimensions directly is often difficult, dangerous, or impossible. During September–October 2017 at the University of Idaho Experimental Nursery in Moscow (ID, USA), we tested a handheld Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) device that interfaces with smartphones and tablets called Spike® by IkeGPS (Wellington, New Zealand) to determine whether it could be used to remotely measure tree‐cavity entrance dimensions. The Spike laser range‐finding device pairs with a mobile app to allow users to photograph a target (i.e., a tree cavity) on their phone or tablet and measure dimensions of that target onscreen. We designed an experiment to test the accuracy of Spike across 4 cavity entrance sizes ranging from 8.25 cm2 to 80.11 cm2, based on average cavity dimensions of Pacific Northwest woodpecker (Picidae) species. We varied height of target off the ground, obliqueness of the viewing angle (i.e., offset from target azimuth), and distance from target. Correlations between Spike measurements and cavity dimensions were high (r > 0.91 across 3 dimensions; n = 294). Measurement error for both vertical and horizontal diameters of cavity entrances was <1 cm on average. Accuracy was most influenced by taking photos from a large oblique viewing angle, high target height, and large distance from the target combined, based on results from generalized linear models. Spike proved to be a low‐cost, portable technology that can noninvasively measure structures that are small and difficult to access. Because of the ease with which it can be used, handheld LIDAR likely has potential future applications in wildlife research as well as citizen science education and outreach efforts. © 2019 The Wildlife Society.

All documented orang-utan-loris interactions have been from Sumatra, where lorises were opportunistically preyed upon by orang-utans. In this paper, we describe two accounts of the Bornean orang-utan (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii) interacting with the Philippine slow loris (Nycticebus menagensis). The interactions were by two adolescent female orang-utans. No attempts to catch the loris were observed on either occasion. Neither interaction was hostile. During the second observation, which was more detailed, we considered the behaviour to be play rather than aggression or attempted predation. Based upon the lack of interest from the adult females during these rare encounters, we propose that the behaviour represents play or non-aggressive exploration rather than predation.