Deer movement and resource selection during Hurricane Irma: implications for extreme climatic events and wildlife

Abstract

Extreme climatic events (ECEs) are increasing in frequency and intensity and this necessitates understanding their influence on organisms. Animal behaviour may mitigate the effects of ECEs, but field studies are rare because ECEs are infrequent and unpredictable. Hurricane Irma made landfall in southwestern Florida where we were monitoring white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus seminolus ) with GPS collars. We report on an opportunistic case study of behavioural responses exhibited by a large mammal during an ECE, mitigation strategies for reducing the severity of the ECE effects, and the demographic effect of the ECE based on known-fate of individual animals. Deer altered resource selection by selecting higher elevation pine and hardwood forests and avoiding marshes. Most deer left their home ranges during Hurricane Irma, and the probability of leaving was inversely related to home range area. Movement rates increased the day of the storm, and no mortality was attributed to Hurricane Irma. We suggest deer mobility and refuge habitat allowed deer to behaviourally mitigate the negative effects of the storm, and ultimately, aid in survival. Our work contributes to the small but growing body of literature linking behavioural responses exhibited during ECEs to survival, which cumulatively will provide insight for predictions of a species resilience to ECEs and improve our understanding of how behavioural traits offset the negative impacts of global climate change.

Behavioral plasticity mitigates the effect of warming on white‐tailed deer

“…These animals made use of spatial and temporal heterogeneity in temperatures in ways that may allow them to maintain their function as herbivores as temperatures increase. Thus, our results corroborate recent literature that argues for the incorporation of animal behavior into climate change studies (Abernathy et al, ; Buchholz et al, ; Harmon & Barton, ; Wong & Candolin, ). Further, our results demonstrate that managing habitats to provide thermal heterogeneity may allow wildlife to alter their behavior in ways that may ameliorate the effects of climate change.…”

Sea temperature effects on depth use and habitat selection in a marine fish community

“…Recent studies have suggested that behavioural plasticity may enable terrestrial mammal species to cope with unsuitable environmental conditions, allowing them to maintain their functional role in the ecosystems as climate changes (Abernathy et al, 2019;Buchholz et al, 2019;Wolff et al, 2020). In this study, both warmwater and cold-water affinity species showed the capacity to adjust their behaviour in space and time to cope with the seasonal thermal heterogeneity of the ecosystem.…”

Are physiological and behavioural responses to stressors displayed concordantly by wild urban rodents?

“…Such responses will benefit individual survival if they reduce physiological stress or remove the threat, for example by moving away or entering torpor (e.g. at signs of extreme weather or an approaching fire: Nowack et al 2017 ; Abernathy et al 2019 ; Nimmo et al 2019 ) or altering behaviours (e.g. in response to a predator: Laundré et al 2001 ).…”