Since 2010, several moose (Alces alces) populations have declined across North America. These declines are believed to be broadly related to climate and landscape change. At the western reaches of moose continental range, in the interior of British Columbia, Canada, wildlife managers have reported widespread declines of moose populations. Disturbances to forests from a mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonum ponderosae) outbreak and associated salvage logging infrastructure in British Columbia are suspected as a mechanism manifested in moose behavior and habitat selection. We examined seasonal differences in moose habitat selection in response to landscape change from mountain pine beetle salvage logging infrastructure: dense road networks and large intensive forest harvest cutblocks. We used 157,447 global positioning system locations from 83 adult female moose from 2012 to 2016 on the Bonaparte Plateau at the southern edge of the Interior Plateau of central British Columbia to test whether increased forage availability, landscape features associated with increased mortality risk, or the cumulative effects of salvage logging best explain female moose distribution using resource selection functions in an information‐theoretic framework. We tested these hypotheses across biological seasons, defined using a cluster analysis framework. The cumulative effects of forage availability and risk best predicted resource selection of female moose in all seasons; however, the covariates included in the cumulative models varied between seasons. The top forage availability model better explained moose habitat use than the top risk model in all seasons, except for the calving and fall seasons where the top risk model (distance to road) better predicted moose space use. Selection of habitat that provides forage in winter, spring, and summer suggests that moose seasonally trade predation risk for the benefits of foraging in early seral vegetation communities in highly disturbed landscapes. Our results identified the need for intensive landscape‐scale management to stem moose population declines. Additional research is needed on predator densities, space use, and calf survival in relation to salvage logging infrastructure. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.

中文翻译：

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雌性驼鹿在收获景观中优先考虑草食而不是死亡率风险

自2010年以来，整个北美的驼鹿（Alces alces）种群数量有所下降。人们认为这些下降与气候和景观变化广泛相关。在加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省内陆的驼鹿大陆山脉的西部，野生动植物管理者报告说驼鹿种群普遍减少。山松甲虫对森林的干扰（Dendroctonum Pokerosae）怀疑不列颠哥伦比亚省的暴发和相关的打捞伐木基础设施是驼鹿行为和生境选择中体现的一种机制。我们根据山松甲虫打捞采伐基础设施的景观变化，研究了驼鹿栖息地选择的季节性差异：密集的道路网络和大量的密集森林采伐。从2012年至2016年，我们在不列颠哥伦比亚省中部内陆高原南部边缘的Bonaparte高原使用了157,447个全球定位系统位置，调查了83个成年雌性驼鹿，以测试是否提供了更多的草料，与死亡风险增加相关的景观特征或累积打捞测井的效果可以在信息理论框架中使用资源选择功能最好地解释雌性驼鹿的分布。我们使用聚类分析框架定义了跨生物学季节的这些假设。饲草供应量和风险的累积影响可以最佳预测所有季节雌性驼鹿的资源选择；但是，累积模型中包含的协变量随季节而变化。在所有季节中，除最高和最高风险模型（距道路的距离）能更好地预测驼鹿空间使用的产犊和秋季外，顶级牧草可用性模型比所有风险模型都更好地解释了驼鹿栖息地的使用。选择在冬季，春季和夏季提供牧草的栖息地表明，驼鹿季节性贸易捕食者具有在高度受干扰的景观中早期阶地植被群落中觅食的风险。我们的结果表明需要加强景观规模管理以阻止驼鹿种群减少。与打捞伐木基础设施有关，需要进一步研究捕食者的密度，空间利用和小牛的存活率。©2020野生动物协会。