Forest cover selection and activity of cow moose in summer

Demarchi, Mike W.; Bunnell, Fred L.

doi:10.4098/at.arch.95-3

Cited by 31 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Theoretically, animals make decisions about their temporal and space-use patterns to maximize their efficiency of procuring resources while minimizing risks, and ultimately to enhance their fitness (Pulliam 1989). Wolves may have sought cover and reduced their activity during daytime to minimize energetic costs associated with direct solar radiation (e.g., Demarchi and Bunnell 1995). Furthermore, the activity pattern and distribution of their prey also may influence wolf behavior.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape Use and Movements of Wolves in Relation to Livestock in a Wildland–Agriculture Matrix

Chavez

Gese

2006

Journal of Wildlife Management

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Wolves (Canis lupus) have expanded their distribution into areas of the midwest United States that have not had wolves for several decades. With recolonization of wolves into agricultural areas, there is increasing concern of wolf‐livestock conflicts. To assess the risk wolves may pose to livestock, we initiated a 3‐year study investigating the activity patterns, movements, habitat use, visitation to livestock pastures by wolves, and the occurrence of depredation events in an agricultural‐wildland matrix in northwestern Minnesota, USA. From June 1997 to November 1999, we captured 23 wolves, including pups, from 3 packs; we radiocollared 16 of these wolves. We tracked radioed wolves intensively on a 24‐hour basis during the spring, summer, and autumn of 1998 and 1999. We found wolves passed directly through a pasture containing cattle on 28% of the nights of tracking; 58% and 95% of the wolf locations were ≤1km and ≤5 km from a pasture, respectively. Space use of wolves showed that while they visited livestock pastures during the 24‐hour tracking sessions, they apparently were passing through these pastures with cattle and not preying on livestock. When compared to random simulations of movements, wolves appeared to encounter livestock pastures randomly. Thirty percent of random movements passed directly through a pasture; 65% and 95% of random movements were within ≤1km and ≤5 km of a pasture, respectively. Wolves were more active at night than during the day. Wolves avoided pastures during the day and visited pastures at night when depredations were most likely (i.e., human presence was low). Visitation of livestock pastures was not related to any discernible characteristics of the pastures (i.e., pasture size, cattle density, distance to human habitation, percent forest cover, index of deer abundance). However, pastures in which livestock were killed by wolves contained more cattle than pastures without depredations, but in 1998 only. While the risk of wolf predation on livestock was potentially high (wolves were within ≤1 km of a pasture on 58% of nights), few livestock were actually killed. During the 3‐year study, only 8 animals (all young or vulnerable livestock) were depredated by wolves. Maintaining healthy wild prey populations, removing offending wolves that kill livestock, and encouraging effective and proper husbandry practices (e.g., disposal of carcasses) among livestock producers, should allow for the persistence of wolves in northwestern Minnesota, USA, while minimizing their impact to farmers in this agriculture–wildland matrix.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape Use and Movements of Wolves in Relation to Livestock in a Wildland–Agriculture Matrix

Chavez

Gese

2006

Journal of Wildlife Management

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“…activity peaking in the twilight periods at dusk and dawn; e.g., white-tailed deer: Beier and McCullough 1990;roe deer: Cederlund 1989), suggesting that factors other than maximizing energy intake play a role (Bergman et al 2001). Similarly, climatic factors such as temperature have been shown to aVect activity pattern in ruminants (Belovsky 1981;Belovsky and Slade 1986;Beier and McCullough 1990;Schmitz 1991;Demarchi and Bunnell 1995). They may experience temperature regimes where sheltering and lying down to reduce heat loss might be energetically beneWcial, but is nevertheless not part of a feeding strategy focusing solely on maximization energy intake rates.…”

Section: Electronic Supplementary Materialsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Activity pattern of arctic reindeer in a predator-free environment: no need to keep a daily rhythm

et al. 2007

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Arctic Cervids face considerable challenges in sustaining life in a harsh and highly seasonal environment, and when to forage is a key component of the survival strategy. We predict that a cervid maximizes net intake of energy to change the duration of feeding-ruminating cycles depending on season, and pays no attention to light or other activity-entraining cues. Still, in periods of bad weather it may pay energetically to reduce exposure and heat loss. We investigated environmental impact on the seasonal and daily activity pattern of a food-limited, predator-free arctic deer, the Svalbard reindeer. We found that the reindeer indeed had season-dependent feeding-rumination intervals, with no distinct peaks in activity at sunrise and sunset, as would be expected if animals maximize energy intake rates in predator-free environments. However, they temporarily reduced activity when exposed to low temperature and increased precipitation during winter, possibly to conserve energy. We provide insight into the behavioural strategy of Svalbard reindeer which enables them to cope with such an extreme environment.

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“…It is well documented that activity time of ruminants is in¯uenced by a number of factors, like temperature (Belovsky 1981;Belovsky and Slade 1986;Beier and McCullough 1990;Schmitz 1991;Demarchi and Bunnell 1995), time of day/light conditions (Beier and McCullough 1990), and disturbance by predators and humans (Singer et al 1991), insects (Espmark and Langvatn 1979) and dominant conspeci®cs (WahlstroÈ m 1994). However, a major determinant of rumination time, and hence time left for overall activity, is the quality of the food (e.g., Hanley 1982;Demment and Van Soest 1985;Cederlund 1989).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relative roles of body size and feeding type on activity time of temperate ruminants

Mysterud

1998

Oecologia

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Recently, there has been some critical testing of whether body size or feeding type (CS: concentrate selectors, IF: intermediate feeders, GR: grass-roughage eaters) is the most important determinant of physiological aspects of ruminant ecology, whereas little has been done on behavioral aspects like activity time. Different predictions regarding the relationships between activity time and body weight/feeding type were tested with activity time data from 18 temperate ruminants. Activity time decreased allometrically with increasing body weight, but there was also a tendency for an effect of feeding type. Exclusion of one statistically defined outlier (mountain goat) made the effect of feeding type highly significant. GR and CS were about equally active. Surprisingly, IF were more active than both GR and CS. The hypothesis is put forward that IF are more active than GR/CS due to their opportunistic use of high-quality forage of both types (concentrate and grass-roughage; on average better quality and hence shorter rumination time), though possible confounding effects of observation methods and varied behavior with respect to cover among CS, IF, and GR should also be evaluated.

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Forest cover selection and activity of cow moose in summer

Cited by 31 publications

References 23 publications

Landscape Use and Movements of Wolves in Relation to Livestock in a Wildland–Agriculture Matrix

Landscape Use and Movements of Wolves in Relation to Livestock in a Wildland–Agriculture Matrix

Activity pattern of arctic reindeer in a predator-free environment: no need to keep a daily rhythm

The relative roles of body size and feeding type on activity time of temperate ruminants

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