Surface mining is the most prevalent form of coal extraction in North America. Reclamation aims to transform former surface mines into self‐sustaining ecosystems that support uses similar to predevelopment conditions. Success of reclamation often is determined by assessing the re‐establishment of landscape structure and vegetation communities. However, there is increasing interest in evaluating reclamation success in the context of higher trophic levels. We evaluated response to mining and reclamation by sympatric bighorn sheep (Ovis canadanesis), elk (Cervus elaphus), and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) on reclaimed coal mines in west‐central Alberta. We used direct ground counts on a fixed survey route to obtain data on abundance and distribution of ungulates during 2004 to 2017. We created a grid of 200 × 200 m grid cells and assigned each group of ungulates to a grid cell. We assigned landscape and topographic features to these grid cells to represent changes due to mining and reclamation. We estimated resource selection functions for bighorn sheep, elk, and mule deer showing how their use of reclaimed features and landscapes increased access to quality forage and decreased predation risk. Ungulates also responded to mining and reclamation in ways that we did not anticipate, e.g. sheep and elk often selected areas near haul roads. Understanding spatial relationships between reclamation prescriptions and higher trophic levels is important when designing “bottom up” reclamation to restore ecological functions including recruitment of wildlife.

中文翻译：

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矿山开垦为艾伯塔省中西部的野生有蹄类动物提供了栖息地

露天开采是北美最普遍的煤炭开采形式。填海工程旨在将以前的露天矿山转变为能够支持类似于开发前条件的用途的自我维持的生态系统。开垦的成功通常取决于评估景观结构和植被群落的重建。但是，在更高营养级别的情况下，对评估填海成功与否的兴趣日益浓厚。我们评估了同伴大角羊（Ovis canadanesis），麋鹿（Cervus elaphus）和m鹿（Odocoileus hemionus）对采矿和填海的反应）在艾伯塔省中西部的再生煤矿上。我们在固定的勘测路线上使用直接地面计数来获取2004年至2017年有蹄类动物的数量和分布的数据。我们创建了一个200×200 m网格单元的网格，并将每组有蹄类动物分配给一个网格单元。我们为这些网格单元分配了景观和地形特征，以表示采矿和填海带来的变化。我们估计了大角羊，麋鹿和m鹿的资源选择功能，显示了它们如何利用垦殖场的地貌和景观增加优质草料的获取并降低捕食风险。g徒也以我们未曾预料到的方式对采矿和开垦做出了反应，例如，绵羊和麋鹿经常被选在运输道路附近。