Spatial factors related to mortality and population decline of endangered mountain caribou

• Published in: The Journal of Wildlife Management
• Main Authors: Apps, Clayton D., Mclellan, Bruce N., Kinley, Trevor A., Serrouya, Robert, Seip, Dale R., Wittmer, Heiko U.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2013
• Subjects: Rangifer tarandus
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.601; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjwmg.601; http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1002/jwmg.601/fullpdf

ABSTRACT Mountain caribou are an endangered ecotype of woodland caribou ( Rangifer tarandus caribou ) that historically occurred throughout the high snowfall regions of southeast British Columbia and the northwestern United States. The decline in caribou is thought to be due to apparent competition where increases in early‐seral conditions stimulate a numerical response in primary ungulate prey and their predators and these incidentally kill an unsustainable number of caribou. Based on the known location of death of 207 radio collared animals, we tested hypotheses pertaining to relationships between landscape composition and predator‐specific mortality of mountain caribou at 2 ecologically based spatial scales. Relative to landscape conditions within subpopulation boundaries (level 1) or within home ranges (level 2), caribou were at greater risk of predation at low elevations particularly within otherwise complex terrain (i.e., valleys) with more variation in overstory canopy closure and greater road densities. Caribou vulnerability to bears was also positively related to the variation in overstory age. Cougar predation was not related to roads or terrain complexity but occurred more often in landscapes with warmer aspects and greater proportions of stands of <120 years. Wolf predation occurred primarily at low elevations at the broader scale and in association with roads at the finer scale. Our results indicate that caribou vulnerability to predation was a function of both static (e.g., terrain) and dynamic (e.g., overstory conditions) factors, but we did not find evidence that localized habitat fragmentation due to forest harvest influenced predation on caribou. This result is not inconsistent with the apparent competition hypothesis but suggests that habitat change largely functions at broader spatial scales involving landscapes that can be beyond those occupied by caribou, including the winter ranges of primary ungulate prey. These changes and the season‐dependent dispersion of other ungulates and their ...