Human recreation affects spatio-temporal habitat use patterns in red deer (Cervus elaphus)

Abstract

The rapid spread and diversification of outdoor recreation can impact on wildlife in various ways, often leading to the avoidance of disturbed habitats. To mitigate human-wildlife conflicts, spatial zonation schemes can be implemented to separate human activities from key wildlife habitats, e.g., by designating undisturbed wildlife refuges or areas with some level of restriction to human recreation and land use. However, mitigation practice rarely considers temporal differences in human-wildlife interactions. We used GPS telemetry data from 15 red deer to study the seasonal (winter vs. summer) and diurnal (day vs. night) variation in recreation effects on habitat use in a study region in south-western Germany where a spatial zonation scheme has been established. Our study aimed to determine if recreation infrastructure and spatial zonation affected red deer habitat use and whether these effects varied daily or seasonally. Recreation infrastructure did not affect home range selection in the study area, but strongly determined habitat use within the home range. The spatial zonation scheme was reflected in both of these two levels of habitat selection, with refuges and core areas being more frequently used than the border zones. Habitat use differed significantly between day and night in both seasons. Both summer and winter recreation trails, and nearby foraging habitats, were avoided during day, whereas a positive association was found during night. We conclude that human recreation has an effect on red deer habitat use, and when designing mitigation measures daily and seasonal variation in human-wildlife interactions should be taken into account. We advocate using spatial zonation in conjunction with temporal restrictions (i.e., banning nocturnal recreation activities) and the creation of suitable foraging habitats away from recreation trails.

Deer density drives habitat use of establishing wolves in the Western European Alps

“…The main prey of wolves in Valais are forest-dwelling, fairly elusive animals (Coppes, Burghardt, Hagen, Suchant, & Braunisch, 2017) whose abundance is difficult to estimate. Conventional survey methods of ungulates include direct visual counts, scat and track counts, trail camera trapping and genetic sampling (Ebert, Sandrini, Spielberger, Thiele, & Hohmann, 2012;Forsyth, MacKenzie, & Wright, 2014;Singh & Milner-Gulland, 2011).…”

Wolverines in winter: indirect habitat loss and functional responses to backcountry recreation

“…are negatively impacted by backcountry winter recreation including habitat displacement as well as energetic and physiological effects (Patthey et al 2008, Braunisch et al 2011, Arlettaz et al 2015, Coppes et al 2017b. Many species of large herbivore (e.g., red deer, Cervus elaphus; mountain caribou, Rangifer tarandus caribou; bighorn sheep, Ovis canadensis; mountain goat, Oreamnos americanus; moose, Alces alces) have exhibited negative physiological or behavioral responses including indirect habitat loss through avoidance of motorized and non-motorized winter recreation (Seip et al 2007, Neumann et al 2009, Courtemanch 2014, Richard and Cote 2016, Coppes et al 2017a, Lesmerises et al 2018. Although useful, many of the previous studies assessing the effects of winter recreation on wildlife have been limited spatially and temporally, and most were focused within a single study area and on a single form of winter recreation (Larson et al 2016).…”

Winter recreation and Canada lynx: reducing conflict through niche partitioning

“…), red deer ( Cervus elaphus ; Coppes et al. ), moose (Harris et al. ), mountain caribou ( Rangifer tarandus caribou; Seip et al.…”