Behavioural responses of moose to thermal conditions in the boreal forest

Dussault, Christian; Ouellet, Jean‐Pierre; Courtois, Réhaume; Huot, Jean; Breton, Laůrier; Larochelle, Jacques

doi:10.1080/11956860.2004.11682839

Cited by 118 publications

(130 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In contrast, the moose road crossing frequency tend to peak in early morning and in the evening (Rolandsen et al 2010), indicating that even small changes in the timing of the main activity period can lead to substantially higher accident rate. In Canada, Dussault et al (2006) found more moose to be killed on roads in warm summer days and speculated that moose under such conditions compensated by being more active during the night time when temperatures were lower, but the driving conditions less good (Dussault et al 2004). The traffic volume may also be related to temperature, e.g., more people may be travelling in years of warm summers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-scale spatiotemporal variation in road mortality of moose: Is it all about population density?

et al. 2011

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Ungulate‐vehicle collisions (UVC) constitute a widespread and increasing problem in large parts of the world. This has generated an intensive search for mitigating measures, but often based on a weak understanding of the underlying spatiotemporal factors. We examined the effects of harvest density (a proxy for moose density), traffic‐related variables and climate on the spatiotemporal variation in number of moose‐vehicle collisions (MVC) in 14 Norwegian counties based on 31 year of data. Moose density was the most important factor explaining the variation in MVC, both within and between counties. In addition, the spatiotemporal variation in MVC was positively related to traffic volume (private car mileage) and snow depth, and negatively related to winter temperature. The relationship between traffic volume and temporal variation in MVC was stronger in counties with general low traffic volume, possibly because high traffic volume can act as a barrier to moose road crossings. Likewise, the temporal effect of snow depth was mainly present in counties with on average deep snow, i.e., where it constitutes a constraint on moose movement and space use during winter. Our study highlights the different importance between areas of the factors underlying the spatiotemporal variation in MVC. A notable exception was the variation in moose density, which follows an isometric scaling to the variation in MVC in all counties. Thus, a given percentage decrease in moose density is likely to return a similar percentage decrease in MVC. A significant population reduction may therefore be an efficient mitigating measure to reduce the number of MVC in Norway. From a harvesting and conservation point of view, other possible preventive measures to reduce MVC should also be considered. However, because of the strong temporal effects of moose density and snow depth, evaluations of other mitigating actions should always seek to control for temporal variation in these variables.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-scale spatiotemporal variation in road mortality of moose: Is it all about population density?

et al. 2011

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“…Even though Conifer was avoided, because of its abundance on the landscape it was still used often. Poole and Smith (2006) reported that moose selected higher crown closure at the landscape scale, whereas others have observed selection by moose for conifer stands at finer scales related to thermal cover (McNicol and Gilbert 1978), forage diversity (Peek 1997), and predation risk (Bowyer et al 1999, Dussault et al 2004, Bjomeraas et al 2011. Throughout most of the year, male and female moose selected for shrub-dominated land-cover (i.e., Upland Shrub, Riparian, or Lowland Shrub).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat use and selection by male and female moose (Alces alces) in a boreal landscape.

McCulley¹

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“…This is an admittedly simple perspective on forest succession, but it serves to demonstrate that, operating from an average landscape composition perspective as we do here, increasing annual timber harvest may not coincide with an immediate increase in deciduous cover, but effectively immediate removal of forest habitat from the landscape. Given that all v www.esajournals.org forested stands have at least some value to moose, for example as forage habitat (Peek et al 1976, Stephenson et al 2006, predatory cover (Stephens andPeterson 1984, Dussault et al 2005), or thermal cover (Dussault et al 2004, van Beest et al 2012, it is reasonable that increasing the average annual timber harvest would depress estimated carrying capacity within wildlife management units. Timber harvest may thus depress moose abundance both indirectly through increased mortality due to improved hunting efficiency by humans and natural predators and directly through changes to the distribution and abundance of forest stands.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing demographic parameters across environmental gradients: a case study with Ontario moose (Alces alces)

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Population-level demographic characteristics as estimated by standard logistic growth models (i.e., carrying capacity and intrinsic growth rate) should vary with changes in habitat quality and availability of resources. However, few published studies have tested this hypothesis by comparing population growth rates across broad bioclimatic gradients, and fewer still the carrying capacities of those populations. We used time series data on moose (Alces alces) population densities based on aerial census and hunter harvest data for 34 management units across Ontario to estimate local carrying capacities and intrinsic growth rates. These population parameters were then regressed against associated habitat covariates for each management unit to assess how moose demography changes across a broad gradient of productivity, habitat abundance, and timber harvest. Moose carrying capacity was found to increase with increasing forest productivity as measured by DNDVI and the proportion of mixedwood stands in the forest. Both variables are plausibly indicative of high quality forage abundance for moose. Moose carrying capacity decreased with the proportion of forest stands harvested for timber annually, suggesting that immediate removal of forest stands and increased access by hunters temper maximum population size. Maximum rates of population growth by Ontario moose did not vary predictably with any of the landscape covariates tested. These findings contribute to our understanding of changes in demography across broad geographic and bioclimatic gradients and suggest that crude population estimators may be derived based on known habitat preferences and resource availability without a priori knowledge of animal abundance.

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Behavioural responses of moose to thermal conditions in the boreal forest

Cited by 118 publications

References 22 publications

Large-scale spatiotemporal variation in road mortality of moose: Is it all about population density?

Large-scale spatiotemporal variation in road mortality of moose: Is it all about population density?

Habitat use and selection by male and female moose (Alces alces) in a boreal landscape.

Characterizing demographic parameters across environmental gradients: a case study with Ontario moose (Alces alces)

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