What shapes Eurasian lynx distribution in human dominated landscapes: selecting prey or avoiding people?

Abstract

In the multi-use landscape of southern Norway, the distribution of lynx is likely to be determined both by the abundance of their favoured prey Á the roe deer Á and the risk associated with the presence of humans because most lynx mortalities are caused by humans (recreational harvest, poaching, vehicle collisions). We described the distribution of the reproductive portion of the lynx population based on snow-track observations of females with dependent kittens collected over 10 yr (1997Á2006) in southern Norway. We used the ecological-niche factor analysis to examine how lynx distribution was influenced by roe deer, human activity, habitat type, environmental productivity and elevation. Our first prediction that lynx should be found in areas of relatively high roe deer abundance was supported. However, our second prediction that lynx should avoid human activity was rejected, and lynx instead occupied areas more disturbed in average than those available (with the exception of the most densely occupied areas). Lynx, however, avoided the most disturbed areas and our third prediction of a trade-off between abundance of prey and avoidance of human activity was supported. On the one hand, roe deer in the most disturbed areas benefit to a large extent from current human land use practices, potentially allowing them to escape predation from lynx. On the other hand, the situation is not so favourable for the predators who are restricted in competition refuges with medium to low prey densities. The consequence is that lynx conservation will have to be achieved in a human modifed environment where the potential for a range of conflicts and high human-caused mortality will remain a constant threat.

The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI): unforeseen successes in animal ecology

“…Wiegand et al (2008) reporting that brown bears Ursus arctos selected areas with specific NDVI characteristics, or Basille et al (2009) demonstrating that the preferred habitat of the lynx Lynx lynx includes areas of high plant productivity (as indexed by NDVI). Likewise, recent work on vervet monkey Chlorocebus pygerythrus home range location suggested that these monkeys prefer areas with elevated productivity and reduced seasonality -as indexed by NDVI -with monthly NDVI values being shown to correlate with field measurements of leaf cover and food availability for vervet monkeys (Willems et al 2009).…”

Foraging sites of Eurasian lynxLynx lynx: relative importance of microhabitat and prey occurrence

“…On a subhome-range scale, Basille et al (2009) found that lynx preferred areas that include large proportions of forest and areas where roe deer are abundant. On a large scale, therefore, both prey density and habitat features play a role in habitat selection by lynx.…”

Distance weighting avoids erroneous scale effects in species‐habitat models

“…In the empirical model, the strong explanatory power of the land-use type forest well reflects the biology of the Eurasian lynx which prefers forests of very large extends in mountainous areas (Schadt et al 2002;Basille et al 2008Basille et al , 2009. Basille et al (2009) showed that abundances of the lynx are closely related to prey density which was not available as a variable in our data set, but the nonlinear effect of the temperature variable might well indicate an optimum which beneficially affects productivity (Melis et al 2010) and therefore continuous resource availability.…”