Survival and cause-specific mortality in adult females of a northern migratory ungulate ...

• Main Authors: Pöllänen, Antti T., Pakanen, Veli-Matti, Paasivaara, Antti
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2023
• Subjects: GPS; Predation; Rangifer; known-fate; wild forest reindeer; wolf; FOS: Biological sciences; Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law; Nature and Landscape Conservation; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Kainuu; Rangifer tarandus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.w0vt4b8x6; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.w0vt4b8x6

Survival of ungulates can vary seasonally due to changing environmental conditions, e.g., weather or predation pressure. The wild forest reindeer (Rangifer tarandus fennicus, ‘WFR’) migrate between calving and wintering grounds. The annual cycle of female WFR includes four main seasons (wintering, calving, rutting and autumn migration) during which they are subject to different conditions, but almost nothing is known about their survival or mortality patterns. We measured survival in 305 GPS-tagged female WFR in two subpopulations in Finland (2010–2022). Data were analysed for inter-annual and seasonal patterns in survival and cause-specific mortality (predation, traffic, accidents and unknown causes) with known-fate models. Inter-annual survival in Suomenselkä (mean 0.90) showed an increasing trend during the study and was higher than in Kainuu (mean 0.84) which showed a declining trend. Seasonal variation in survival was population dependent. Survival was lowest in Kainuu during the winter while in ... : The data were collected by following animals with GPS-collars. It has been processed to include monthly information on whether the animal was alive or deceased during the months January 2010–April 2022. ...