Pronghorn migration and resource selection in southwestern North Dakota

Kolar, Jesse L.

doi:10.32469/10355/9657

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Pronghorn also avoided anthropogenic features such as roads and developed areas. These findings are largely consistent with other studies of pronghorn throughout their range (Griffin , Yoakum , Kolar ). In 2006, adult female pronghorn selected sites with low NDVI, indicating an avoidance of areas with high vegetation biomass (e.g., corn fields, tall warm‐season grasses, forests; Paruelo and Lauenroth , Wang et al ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Adult female pronghorn avoided areas with high densities of roads and highways and developed areas, which agrees with other research on pronghorn habitat selection in North Dakota (Kolar 2009). Pronghorn have difficulty crossing roads, many of which are lined with livestock fencing, and typically avoid fenced roads and right-of-ways (Sheldon 2005).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Pronghorn occur in areas with a mixture of grasses, forbs, and shrubs, and typically avoid steep terrain, forests, and certain types of crops (Yoakum ). During the summer, pronghorn often are associated with native grasslands and fields of alfalfa, wheat, and hay (Torbit et al , Yoakum , Kolar ). In winter, pronghorn rely on sagebrush and other shrubs, and in North Dakota, deep snow necessitates seasonal migrations to areas with sufficient amounts of available forage (Yoakum , Kolar ).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Pronghorn resource selection and habitat fragmentation in North Dakota

2016

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Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) in North Dakota have experienced habitat fragmentation due to agricultural practices, roads, and oil development. We analyzed patterns of female pronghorn habitat selection in 2006 and 2014, years with contrasting pronghorn density and oil production in western North Dakota. We quantified resource selection and fawn:female ratios relative to proximity to active wells, road density, land cover, development, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and agricultural practices. We also assessed patterns of well placement relative to the same environmental variables. Pronghorn selected sagebrush and areas with low NDVI but avoided developed areas, roads, forests, and wetlands. Pronghorn selected areas close to oil and gas wells because wells were located in high‐value habitats (e.g., native sagebrush‐steppe ecosystems selected by pronghorn). For the majority of variables tested, selection was stronger when pronghorn density was low, consistent with current resource selection theory. Although females selected relatively open habitats, fawn:female ratios within areas selected by females were positively correlated with NDVI. Our results demonstrate that pronghorn avoid human development and roads but not oil and gas wells. Although wells are not actively avoided by pronghorn, their placement in high‐value habitat for this species leads to significant habitat fragmentation. In light of these results, we recommend efforts to conserve pronghorn habitat such as constructing wells away from sagebrush, using existing roads to service newly constructed wells, and re‐vegetating well pads with sagebrush plantings once they are no longer in use. © 2016 The Wildlife Society.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

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confidence: 99%

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Pronghorn resource selection and habitat fragmentation in North Dakota

2016

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“…For this study, we included only fences with barbed, smooth, or woven wire, and grouped barbed and smooth wire together as “strand” wire given a low sample size of smooth wire in our study and an assumption that wire height is likely more influential to pronghorn passage than whether the wire is smooth or barbed. Additionally, because pronghorn have been found to alter behaviors and avoid areas near roads with higher traffic volume (Gates et al, 2012; Gavin & Komers, 2006; Kolar, 2009) and to reduce the potential confounding effect that vehicle traffic on roads adjacent to fences may have on pronghorn movements, we constrained the fence data to exclude those that occurred adjacent (i.e., within 50 m) to roads with estimated average traffic volumes of ≥200 vehicles/day (Gavin & Komers, 2006; Montana Department of Transportation, 2019).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fence types influence pronghorn movement responses

2022

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Impediments that constrain animal movements across spatiotemporally heterogeneous landscapes can result in reduced or complete loss of access to critical resources. Across their range in North America, pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) are exposed to fences that can affect their ability to permeate the landscape, access critical resources, and respond to climatic variations. Understanding pronghorn movement responses to fences is essential for improving landscape permeability; however, prior studies provide only limited insight due to lack of information on fence characteristics and small sample sizes. Our study used hourly collar locations from adult female pronghorn in six herds in Montana, USA, and identified encounters with mapped fences to evaluate three movement responses (i.e., probability of an unaltered initial response, probability of crossing following an altered initial response, and passage time following an altered initial response) as a function of fence and landscape attributes. Based on 5581 encounters identified from movement pathways of 265 collared pronghorn and 979 km of mapped fences, we found that variability in pronghorn fence response was correlated with fence type. Woven wire fences substantially reduced unaltered initial and crossing responses and increased passage times as compared with low (i.e., average lowest wire height <41 cm) or high (i.e., average lowest wire height ≥41 cm) strand fences. Both low and high strand fences elicited similar responses of being relatively permeable at the initial encounter with reduced permeability thereafter. Fence crossing probabilities following altered initial responses increased through time modestly for strand fences but only negligibly for woven wire fences, with passage times averaging approximately 14 h. Pronghorn knowledge of and fidelity to specific permeable locations along fences, which may be due to inconsistent fence and landscape characteristics along the fence stretch, likely allow some woven wire fences and most strand fences, regardless of the average lowest wire height, to be permeable. Improving landscape permeability for pronghorn should focus on removing woven wire fences, replacing woven wire fences with strand fences, and incorporating variation in the lowest wire heights into new fence designs or modifications of existing fences.

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“…Although strong negative effects have been documented for oil and gas development, windenergy development differs in both the type and amount of disturbance and could thus affect wildlife populations differently Pejchar 2013, Jones et al 2015). For both oil and gas and wind energy, road construction represents one of the largest land-use changes (Jones et al 2015), and roads commonly alter resource use by ungulates (Kolar 2009, Sawyer et al 2009, Buchanan et al 2014, Seidler et al 2015, Christie et al 2017). However, a comparison of habitat loss based on existing development in Colorado and Wyoming suggested that wind-energy development resulted in fewer impacts per unit area compared with oil and gas (Jones and Pejchar 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%