Assessing Suitable and Critical Habitat for Wood Bison (Bison bison athabascae) Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing: Preliminary Results

• Main Authors: Olaf C. Jensen, John Nishi, Norm L. Cool, David Poll, Hal, W. Reynolds
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Canada; Wood Buffalo; Bison bison athabascae; Slave River; Wood Bison; Wood Buffalo National Park; Bison bison bison
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.607.3536; http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs/400484/jensen_edited_final_march_14.pdf

Abstract: The wood bison (Bison bison athabascae)1 is currently listed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) as a nationally threatened species. The principal goal of the National Recovery Plan for the Wood Bison is “to foster the recovery of wood bison in other parts of their original range and in suitable habitat elsewhere, thereby ensuring their long term survival. ” This recognition of the importance of habitat conservation, along with the requirement of the Canadian Species at Risk Act that habitat and critical habitat for listed species be identified in recovery strategies and/or action plans, necessitates an objective definition of critical habitat for wood bison. Definitions of suitable and critical habitat can be addressed at different spatial scales. We present a method of assessing resource selection when resources are considered simultaneously at multiple spatial scales. Specifically, we assessed habitat selection by wood bison at the landscape scale using a Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing-derived data because this is the scale at which most management decisions will likely be made. We evaluated bison habitat use from aerial survey and radio-telemetry data within Wood Buffalo National Park, the adjacent Slave River Lowlands, and the Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary. We assessed resource selection function models using Akaike