Anthrax, caused by the spore‐forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis, is a zoonosis affecting animals and humans globally. In the United States, anthrax outbreaks occur in wildlife and livestock, with frequent outbreaks in native and exotic wildlife species in Texas, livestock outbreaks in the Dakotas, and sporadic mixed outbreaks in Montana. Understanding where pathogen and host habitat selection overlap is essential for anthrax management. Resource selection and habitat use of ungulates may be sex‐specific and lead to differential anthrax exposure risks across the landscape for males and females. We evaluated female elk (Cervus canadensis) resource selection in the same study areas as male elk in a previous anthrax risk study to identify risk of anthrax transmission to females and compare transmission risk between females and males. We developed a generalized linear mixed‐effect model to estimate resource selection for female elk in southwest Montana during the June to August anthrax transmission risk period. We then predicted habitat selection of female and male elk across the study area and compared selection with the distribution of anthrax risk to identify spatial distributions of potential anthrax exposure for the male and female elk. Female and male elk selected different resources during the anthrax risk period, which resulted in different anthrax exposure areas for females and males. The sex‐specific resource selection and habitat use could infer different areas of risk for anthrax transmission, which can improve anthrax and wildlife management and have important public health and economic implications. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.

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炭疽风险期间的特定性别麋鹿资源选择

炭疽由产芽孢杆菌炭疽杆菌引起，是一种影响全球动物和人类的人畜共患病。在美国，炭疽病在野生动物和牲畜中爆发，德克萨斯州本土和外来野生动物物种频繁爆发，达科他州牲畜爆发，蒙大拿州零星混合爆发。了解病原体和宿主栖息地选择重叠的位置对于炭疽病管理至关重要。有蹄类动物的资源选择和栖息地使用可能具有性别特异性，并导致男性和女性在整个景观中暴露于炭疽的风险不同。我们评估了雌性麋鹿 ( Cervus canadensis)) 在先前的炭疽风险研究中与雄性麋鹿在同一研究区域中选择资源，以确定炭疽传播给雌性的风险，并比较雌性和雄性之间的传播风险。我们开发了一个广义线性混合效应模型来估计蒙大拿州西南部 6 月至 8 月炭疽传播风险期间雌性麋鹿的资源选择。然后，我们预测了整个研究区域内雌性和雄性麋鹿的栖息地选择，并将选择与炭疽风险的分布进行了比较，以确定雄性和雌性麋鹿的潜在炭疽暴露空间分布。雌性和雄性麋鹿在炭疽风险期间选择了不同的资源，导致雌性和雄性的炭疽暴露区域不同。特定性别的资源选择和栖息地利用可以推断出炭疽传播的不同风险区域，这可以改善炭疽和野生动物的管理，并具有重要的公共卫生和经济意义。© 2020 野生动物协会。