Data from: Individual and temporal variation in habitat association of an alien carnivore at its invasion front ...

• Main Authors: Melis, Claudia, Herfindal, Ivar, Dahl, Fredrik, Åhlén, Per-Arne
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2016
• Subjects: Raccoon dog; Nyctereutes procyonoides; telemetry; Invasion ecology; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.q2k7k; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.q2k7k

Gathering information on how invasive species utilize the habitat is important, in order to better aim actions to reduce their negative impact. We studied habitat use and selection of 55 GPS-marked raccoon dogs (30 males, 25 females) at their invasion front in Northern Sweden, with particular focus on differences between males and females, between movement states, and between seasons and times of the day. Daily movement pattern was used to classify GPS-locations into dispersing and settled. We focused on both anthropogenic and natural landscape characteristics. Since we did not have any a priori knowledge about the spatial scale of raccoon dog habitat selection, we first assessed how landscape characteristics of random points changed with distance from the GPS-location they were paired to. Because changes in habitat use became less pronounced at approximately 5 km for all variables, we focused on habitat use at two spatial scales: fine (500 m) and coarse (5 km). Habitat selection was strongest at the coarse ... : Habitat characteristics of raccoon dog observations at multiple spatial scalesHabitat characteristics (habitat type, distance to roads and water, elevation, slope, and length of growing season) for raccoon dog GPS-locations (Scale = 0) and paired random points located within a given distance (Scale > 0 m). Data is aggregated per individual trajectory, season, and light period (day, night, twilight). For further details, see the article.Melis_et_al_Raccoon_dog_PLoS_ONE.xlsx ...