Habitat use by semi-domesticated reindeer, estimated with pellet-group counts

• Published in: Rangifer
• Main Author: Anna Skarin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Septentrio Academic Publishing 2009
• Subjects: disturbance; insect harassment; multiple linear regression; landscape level; ungulates; Animal culture; SF1-1100; Rangifer; Rangifer tarandus
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.7557/2.27.2.167; https://doaj.org/article/6e86cfa153ef43d6b026ee29e87916ac

Habitat selection theory predicts that herbivores should select for or against different factors at different spatial scales. For instance, quantity of forage is expected to be a strong factor influencing habitat choice at large scales, while forage quality may be important at finer scales. However, during summer, herbivores such as reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) can be limited in their grazing time by insect harassment, and do not always have the possibility to select for high quality forage. Human disturbances from hikers, etc., can also have a limiting effect on the possibility for reindeer to graze in high quality foraging habitats. Reindeer habitat selection at the landscape level was investigated through faecal pellet-group counts during the summers of 2002 and 2003 in two reindeer herding districts in Sweden. Resource utilization functions (RUFs) were developed using multiple linear regressions, where the pellet densities were related to vegetation types, topographic features, distances to tourist resorts, and distances to hiking trails. Validations of the models were performed through cross-validation correlations. Results show that high altitudes with high quality forage were important habitats. Areas that offer both snow patches and fresh forage plants for the reindeer were used in relation to their availability. The reindeer also seemed able to habituate to human intervention to a certain extent. The predictive capabilities of the RUF models were high and pellet-group counts seemed well suited to study how abiotic factors affect the habitat use at large temporal and spatial scales Abstract in Swedish / Sammanfattning: Renens användning av sommarbetesområdet, uppskattat med spillningsinventeringar Hierarkiskt habitatval innebär att djur väljer för och emot olika faktorer beroende på den rumsliga skalan. Mängden bete kan t ex spela stor roll för en växtätares habitatval på en stor skala medan kvalitén på betet kan ha större betydelse på en mindre skala. För renar (Rangifer tarandus tarandus), kan ...