Effects of winter recreation on northern ungulates with focus on moose (Alces alces) and snowmobiles
Winter recreation can displace ungulates to poor habitats, which may raise their energy expenditure and lower individual survivorship, causing population declines.Winter recreation could be benign, however, if animals habituate. Moreover, recreation creates trails. Traveling on them could reduce ene...
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ftunivnebraskali:oai:digitalcommons.unl.edu:usfwspubs-1441 2023-11-12T04:00:18+01:00 Effects of winter recreation on northern ungulates with focus on moose (Alces alces) and snowmobiles Harris, Grant Nelson, Ryan M. Rinaldi, Todd Lohuis, Thomas 2014-01-01T08:00:00Z application/pdf https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usfwspubs/442 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/usfwspubs/article/1441/viewcontent/Harris_EJWR_2014_Effects_of_winter_recreation.pdf unknown DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usfwspubs/442 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/usfwspubs/article/1441/viewcontent/Harris_EJWR_2014_Effects_of_winter_recreation.pdf US Fish & Wildlife Publications Alces alces Moose Recreation Resource selection function Snowmobiles Ungulate text 2014 ftunivnebraskali 2023-10-30T09:50:31Z Winter recreation can displace ungulates to poor habitats, which may raise their energy expenditure and lower individual survivorship, causing population declines.Winter recreation could be benign, however, if animals habituate. Moreover, recreation creates trails. Traveling on them could reduce energy expenditure, thereby increasing ungulate survivorship and generating population benefits. Balancing recreation use with wildlife stewardship requires identifying when these effects occur. This task would be simpler if guidelines existed to inform assessments. We developed and tested such guidelines using two approaches. First, we synthesized literature describing the effects of winter recreation—motorized and nonmotorized—on northern ungulates. This synthesis enabled formulating six guidelines, while exposing two requiring further attention (ungulate habituation and displacement). Second, we tested these two guidelines and evaluated the others by quantifying the behavioral responses of moose to snowmobiles, in two areas of south-central Alaska, differing by snowmobile predictability. For each location, we modeled moose preferences during the snowmobile period using different combinations of eight variables—static (elevation and slope), biotic (habitat and cover), and anthropogenic (distance to roads, railroads, snowmobile trails, and trail density). We identified the model with the most support and used it to estimate parameter coefficients for pre- and post-recreation periods. Changes in coefficients between periods indicated snowmobile effects on moose. Overall, we produced and evaluated six guidelines describing when winter recreation is potentially detrimental to ungulates as follows: (1) when unpredictable, (2) spanning large areas, (3) long in duration, (4) large spatial footprint, (5) nonmotorized, and (6) when animals are displaced to poor quality habitats. Text Alces alces Alaska University of Nebraska-Lincoln: DigitalCommons@UNL |
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Open Polar |
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University of Nebraska-Lincoln: DigitalCommons@UNL |
op_collection_id |
ftunivnebraskali |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Alces alces Moose Recreation Resource selection function Snowmobiles Ungulate |
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Alces alces Moose Recreation Resource selection function Snowmobiles Ungulate Harris, Grant Nelson, Ryan M. Rinaldi, Todd Lohuis, Thomas Effects of winter recreation on northern ungulates with focus on moose (Alces alces) and snowmobiles |
topic_facet |
Alces alces Moose Recreation Resource selection function Snowmobiles Ungulate |
description |
Winter recreation can displace ungulates to poor habitats, which may raise their energy expenditure and lower individual survivorship, causing population declines.Winter recreation could be benign, however, if animals habituate. Moreover, recreation creates trails. Traveling on them could reduce energy expenditure, thereby increasing ungulate survivorship and generating population benefits. Balancing recreation use with wildlife stewardship requires identifying when these effects occur. This task would be simpler if guidelines existed to inform assessments. We developed and tested such guidelines using two approaches. First, we synthesized literature describing the effects of winter recreation—motorized and nonmotorized—on northern ungulates. This synthesis enabled formulating six guidelines, while exposing two requiring further attention (ungulate habituation and displacement). Second, we tested these two guidelines and evaluated the others by quantifying the behavioral responses of moose to snowmobiles, in two areas of south-central Alaska, differing by snowmobile predictability. For each location, we modeled moose preferences during the snowmobile period using different combinations of eight variables—static (elevation and slope), biotic (habitat and cover), and anthropogenic (distance to roads, railroads, snowmobile trails, and trail density). We identified the model with the most support and used it to estimate parameter coefficients for pre- and post-recreation periods. Changes in coefficients between periods indicated snowmobile effects on moose. Overall, we produced and evaluated six guidelines describing when winter recreation is potentially detrimental to ungulates as follows: (1) when unpredictable, (2) spanning large areas, (3) long in duration, (4) large spatial footprint, (5) nonmotorized, and (6) when animals are displaced to poor quality habitats. |
format |
Text |
author |
Harris, Grant Nelson, Ryan M. Rinaldi, Todd Lohuis, Thomas |
author_facet |
Harris, Grant Nelson, Ryan M. Rinaldi, Todd Lohuis, Thomas |
author_sort |
Harris, Grant |
title |
Effects of winter recreation on northern ungulates with focus on moose (Alces alces) and snowmobiles |
title_short |
Effects of winter recreation on northern ungulates with focus on moose (Alces alces) and snowmobiles |
title_full |
Effects of winter recreation on northern ungulates with focus on moose (Alces alces) and snowmobiles |
title_fullStr |
Effects of winter recreation on northern ungulates with focus on moose (Alces alces) and snowmobiles |
title_full_unstemmed |
Effects of winter recreation on northern ungulates with focus on moose (Alces alces) and snowmobiles |
title_sort |
effects of winter recreation on northern ungulates with focus on moose (alces alces) and snowmobiles |
publisher |
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usfwspubs/442 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/usfwspubs/article/1441/viewcontent/Harris_EJWR_2014_Effects_of_winter_recreation.pdf |
genre |
Alces alces Alaska |
genre_facet |
Alces alces Alaska |
op_source |
US Fish & Wildlife Publications |
op_relation |
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usfwspubs/442 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/usfwspubs/article/1441/viewcontent/Harris_EJWR_2014_Effects_of_winter_recreation.pdf |
_version_ |
1782327363971842048 |