Elk Habitat Use Patterns in the Shrub-Steppe of Washington

McCorquodale, Scott M.; Raedeke, Kenneth J.; Taber, Richard D.

doi:10.2307/3800978

Cited by 46 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Radiotelemetry is clearly useful to elucidate special habitat requirements of elk, or any other species, as individuals adjust to variable weather, behavioral changes, cover and thermal requirements, and decreasing forage availability and quality among other factors (e.g., McCorquodale et al 1986;Millspaugh 1999;Roloff et al 2001). Nevertheless, radiotelemetry alone cannot adequately assess all outcomes of habitat selection to an individual animal; alternate methods are needed to elucidate, for example, nutritional or thermal consequences of such habitat selection.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Identification of subpopulations of North American elk (Cervus elaphusL.) using multiple lines of evidence: habitat use, dietary choice, and fecal stable isotopes

Walter

Leslie

Hellgren

et al. 2010

Ecological Research

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We used multiple lines of evidence to assess habitat selection, dietary choice, and nutritional outcomes for a population of North American elk (Cervus elaphus), confined to a relatively small and isolated landscape of public and private land in south-central Great Plains, USA. The area of suitable elk habitat was a topographically diverse matrix of mature oak savannah, C 4 -dominated grasslands, and C 3 -dominated agricultural fields surrounded by unsuitable lowlands fragmented by anthropogenic activities. We hypothesized that such disparity in habitat availability and quality resulted in subpopulation differences in the overall elk population. We used 3 methods to evaluate this premise: radiotelemetry to determine home range and habitat use, microhistology of plant fragments in feces to determine dietary selection, and fecal nitrogen (N) and stable isotope ratios of nitrogen (d 15 N) and carbon (d 13 C) to assess nutritional outcomes of habitat use and dietary choice. By comparing these 3 approaches, we wanted to determine if fecal indices alone could efficiently and accurately identify subpopulation structuring. Compositional analyses from radiotelemetry observations of 21 female elk identified 2 subpopulations that occupied relatively disjunct areas and showed differential preferences for forested and cultivated fields in summer but comparable preferences for cultivated fields in winter. A third unmarked subpopulation of elk was known to be largely confined to an adjacent wildlife refuge. Microhistological analyses of feces collected in all 3 areas highlighted distinct diets, outcomes of habitat occupation by the 3 subpopulations. Increased use of cultivated forages in winter was evident for 2 of the subpopulations, but the extent of use by elk was dependent on availability of cultivated forages in areas they occupied. The refuge subpopulation had no access to cultivated forage. Fecal N, fecal d 13 C, and fecal d 15 N supported the premise that the subpopulation with the greatest access to cultivated forages was on a higher nutritional plane than the other 2 subpopulations. Changes in fecal N, fecal d 13 C, and fecal d 15 N paralleled percentages of cultivated forages in the diets highlighting the utility of such fecal indices as supplemental to or surrogates for traditional methods of habitat use and dietary selection in free-ranging ungulates.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Identification of subpopulations of North American elk (Cervus elaphusL.) using multiple lines of evidence: habitat use, dietary choice, and fecal stable isotopes

Walter

Leslie

Hellgren

et al. 2010

Ecological Research

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“…Much work has been published on the important role of rivers, and especially riverbank vegetation, for mammals and birds, mostly from North America, for example for wapiti (Cervus elaphus) (Ranta et af., 1982;McCorquodale et al, 1986), moose (Alces afces) (Brusnyk and Gilbert, 1983;Doerr, 1983;Risenhoover, 1989), reindeer or caribou, (Rangifer tarandus) (Jakimchuk et al, 1987), mule deer (Carson and Peek, 1987;Dusek et al, 1989), coyote (Canis latrans) (Parker and Maxwell, 1989), American black bear (Ursus americanus) (Unsworth et al, 1989), American beaver (Castor canadensis) (Naiman et al, 1988) and Canada goose (Branta canadensis) (Campbell, 1990). The river corridor is especially important in high latitude catchments.…”

Section: State Of Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological effects of river regulation on mammals and birds: A review

Nilsson

Dynesius

1994

Regul. Rivers: Res. Mgmt.

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Although most of the world's river systems are regulated, the effects of river regulation on mammals and birds are little known. In fact, speculations are more common than empirical data. A review of this topic is presented, emphasizing northern rivers where most impacts have been described. Effects are related to the major causes of change. It is concluded that the two most disastrous effects of river regulation on mammals and birds are the permanent inundation of vast areas of land, and the disruption of the seasonal flood regime along the river. The design of future investigations to improve our knowledge is considered.

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“…Loss of Elk in these areas was due to human influence, not lack of adaptability to the habitat (Laliberte and Ripple 2004). In recent years Elk have recolonized areas in treeless, sagebrush-steppe habitats in central Washington (Rickard et al 1977;McCorquodale et al 1986;McCorquodale 1991) similar to those used by the WC Elk.…”

Section: The Canadian Field-naturalistmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colonization of Non-Traditional Range in Dispersing Elk, <em>Cervus elaphus nelsoni</em>, Populations

Dyke

2007

Can Field Nat

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On traditional ranges, animals typically concentrate use in the most productive patches of habitat (Charnov 1976;Parker and Stuart 1976). However, intraspecific population pressure, often associated with population growth, can cause a species to increase its range of habitat use in less predictable ways (Rosenzweig 1991). For non-territorial species, the tendency to increase range of habitat use with increasing population density has been formalized as the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) Theorem. The Ideal Free Distribution Theorem asserts that individuals choose habitats at densities associated with equal levels of fitness (Fretwell and Lucas 1970). Thus, IFD predicts that when populations occupy new ranges at low densities, individuals will occupy only optimal habitat. As density increases, so does interference with conspecifics, causing individual fitness to decline. Individuals leave optimal habitat when fitness drops below what they could achieve in a suboptimal habitat at a lower population density.Among ungulates, the behavior of Elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) in populations experiencing long-term population growth corresponds to predictions of IFD. Dispersive behavior associated with population growth and an increasing range of habitat use might contribute to the initial stages of colonization and the establishment of a permanent population in a previously unoccupied area (Safriel and Ritte 1983). The colonization of vacant habitat without decreased fitness of colonists is an alternative to increased intraspecific competition on traditional range. Although the IFD Theorem makes density-dependent dispersal theoretically plausible, such dispersal has been difficult to demonstrate in ungulates (Clutton-Brock et al. 1985;Boyce 1989), and determination of the mechanisms of colonization by individuals dispersing from established ungulate populations, or their relation to population growth, has been problematic.In three increasing populations in south-central Montana, USA, Elk demonstrated changes in habitat use and home-range characteristics, increasing spatial separation of adjacent populations, and fissioning of individual populations into multiple populations (Van Dyke and Klein 1996;Van Dyke et al. 1998), all of which can lead to an increasing range of habitat use. The last response, population fissioning, was initiated by the formation of a dispersing group that made seasonal movements to new range, often containing a distribution of vegetation communities different from the traditional range of the established population. In investigating the role of such groups in expanding range and habitat use of established populations, I sought to determine what changes dispersing Elk make in their use of home range and habitats compared to their populations of origin that might enable them to persist on new ranges that the established population did not use. Study AreaThree populations of Elk in south-central Montana (USA) were investigated, locally known as the Line Creek (LC), Picket Pin (PP), and Silver Run (SR) pop...

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Elk Habitat Use Patterns in the Shrub-Steppe of Washington

Cited by 46 publications

References 8 publications

Identification of subpopulations of North American elk (Cervus elaphusL.) using multiple lines of evidence: habitat use, dietary choice, and fecal stable isotopes

Identification of subpopulations of North American elk (Cervus elaphusL.) using multiple lines of evidence: habitat use, dietary choice, and fecal stable isotopes

Ecological effects of river regulation on mammals and birds: A review

Colonization of Non-Traditional Range in Dispersing Elk, <em>Cervus elaphus nelsoni</em>, Populations

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