Insect avoidance may override human disturbances in reindeer habitat selection

Skarin, Anna; Danell, Öje; Bergström, Roger; Moen, Jon

doi:10.7557/2.24.2.306

Cited by 52 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…In the latter area, avoidance declined after actions had been taken to reduce the disturbance, but female reindeer still avoided the closest 4-km zone around the resort (Helle et al 2012). Skarin (2007) found that reindeer avoided staying close to mountain cabins and lodges during summer, while a preference for hiking trails was reported by both Skarin et al (2004) and Skarin (2007). In Skarin et al (2010), the reindeer movement rate increased close to hiking trails (suggesting an aversion effect of trails) in a region with a low density of hiking trails, while the movement rate decreased in a region with a high density of hiking trails (suggesting a higher tolerance to the trails).…”

Section: Relevance Of a Large-scale Perspective For Domesticated Reinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…used data from observation surveys from a calving range during two consecutive years, evaluating the effect of a cabin area, roads and power lines. Skarin et al (2004) used pellet-group counts and aerial surveys to register reindeer habitat use in relation to tourism, insect harassment and vegetation types in two summer ranges in the southern part of the Swedish mountains. Skarin et al (2010) used the same reindeer GPS data as Skarin et al (2008) above, but in this case to examine reindeer movement rate rather than habitat selection within home ranges.…”

Section: Local Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

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Do human activity and infrastructure disturb domesticated reindeer? The need for the reindeer’s perspective

Skarin

Åhman

2014

Polar Biol

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In recent decades, human-Rangifer (reindeer and caribou) interactions have increasingly been studied from a scientific perspective. Many of the studies have examined Norwegian wild reindeer or caribou in North America. It is often questioned whether results from these studies can be applied to reindeer in managed herds, as these animals have been exposed to domestication and are also more used to humans. In order to examine the domesticated reindeer's reactions to various disturbance sources, we reviewed 18 studies of the effects of human activity and infrastructure on 12 populations of domesticated reindeer and compared these to studies on wild reindeer and caribou; based on this, we discuss the effects of domestication and tameness on reindeer responses to anthropogenic disturbance. We also consider the relevance of spatial and temporal scales and data collection methods when evaluating the results of these studies. The reviewed studies showed that domesticated reindeer exhibit avoidance behaviours up to 12 km away from infrastructure and sites of human activity and that the area they avoid may shift between seasons and years. Despite a long domestication process, reindeer within Sami reindeer-herding systems exhibit similar patterns of large-scale avoidance of anthropogenic disturbance as wild Rangifer, although the strength of their response may sometimes differ. This is not surprising since current Sami reindeer husbandry represents an extensive form of pastoralism, and the reindeer are not particularly tame. To obtain a true picture of how reindeer use their ranges, it is of fundamental importance to study the response pattern at a spatial and temporal scale that is relevant to the reindeer, whether domesticated or wild.

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Section: Relevance Of a Large-scale Perspective For Domesticated Reinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Local Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Do human activity and infrastructure disturb domesticated reindeer? The need for the reindeer’s perspective

Skarin

Åhman

2014

Polar Biol

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“…This lack of response toward infrastructure and human activity is quite common during insect harassment (e.g. Noel et al 1998;Skarin et al 2004), which provides a major stress factor to reindeer, or could even erroneously reflect holding patterns. Furthermore, their study significantly underestimated the importance of scale, studying two peripheral peninsulas of the range, both of which were exposed to different types of development, and using a road section as a control for a wind farm site development.…”

Section: Changes In Habitat Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wind farm construction impacts reindeer migration and movement corridors

et al. 2015

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Context Over the last decade, we have seen a massive increase in the construction of wind farms in northern Fennoscandia. Wind farms comprising hundreds of wind turbines are being built, with little knowledge of the possible cumulative adverse effects on the habitat use and migration of semi-domesticated free-ranging reindeer. Objectives We assessed how reindeer responded to wind farm construction in an already fragmented landscape, with specific reference to the effects on use of movement corridors and reindeer habitat selection. Methods We used GPS-data from reindeer during calving and post-calving in the Malå reindeer herding community in Sweden. We analysed data from the pre-development years compared to the construction years of two relatively small wind farms. Results During construction of the wind farms, use of original migration routes and movement corridors within 2 km of development declined by 76 %. This decline in use corresponded to an increase in activity of the reindeer measured by increased step lengths within 0-5 km. The step length was highest nearest the development and declining with distance, as animals moved towards migration corridors and turned around or were observed in holding patterns while not crossing. During construction, reindeer avoided the wind farms at both regional and landscape scale of selection. Conclusions The combined construction activities associated with even a few wind turbines combined with power lines and roads in or close to central movement corridors caused a reduction in the use of such corridors and grazing habitat and increased the fragmentation of the reindeer calving ranges.

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“…A large number of habitat selection studies on large herbivores have used faecal pelletgroup counts to collect data on habitat use (e.g. Neff, 1968;Guillet et al, 1995;Härkönen & Heikkilä, 1999), compared with only a few investigations performed on Rangifer (Helle & Särkelä, 1993;Quayle & Kershaw, 1996;Teterukovskiy & Edenius, 2003;Skarin et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, it is uncertain how important human activities are and at which scale they interact with reindeer habitat selection. It has been suggested that insect harassment may override human disturbances at the landscape level (Pollard et al, 1996;Skarin et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat use by semi-domesticated reindeer, estimated with pellet-group counts

Skarin

2009

Ran

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Habitat selection theory predicts that herbivores should select for or against different factors at different spatial scales. For instance, quantity of forage is expected to be a strong factor influencing habitat choice at large scales, while forage quality may be important at finer scales. However, during summer, herbivores such as reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) can be limited in their grazing time by insect harassment, and do not always have the possibility to select for high quality forage. Human disturbances from hikers, etc., can also have a limiting effect on the possibility for reindeer to graze in high quality foraging habitats. Reindeer habitat selection at the landscape level was investigated through faecal pellet-group counts during the summers of 2002 and 2003 in two reindeer herding districts in Sweden. Resource utilization functions (RUFs) were developed using multiple linear regressions, where the pellet densities were related to vegetation types, topographic features, distances to tourist resorts, and distances to hiking trails. Validations of the models were performed through cross-validation correlations. Results show that high altitudes with high quality forage were important habitats. Areas that offer both snow patches and fresh forage plants for the reindeer were used in relation to their availability. The reindeer also seemed able to habituate to human intervention to a certain extent. The predictive capabilities of the RUF models were high and pellet-group counts seemed well suited to study how abiotic factors affect the habitat use at large temporal and spatial scales.

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Insect avoidance may override human disturbances in reindeer habitat selection

Cited by 52 publications

References 30 publications

Do human activity and infrastructure disturb domesticated reindeer? The need for the reindeer’s perspective

Do human activity and infrastructure disturb domesticated reindeer? The need for the reindeer’s perspective

Wind farm construction impacts reindeer migration and movement corridors

Habitat use by semi-domesticated reindeer, estimated with pellet-group counts

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