Energetics and space use of female moose during winter

Abstract

Space use and resource selection are processes linked by habitat availability that have direct consequences to fitness. Knowledge of such processes allows comprehension of wildlife-habitat relationships, which can improve the efficacy of wildlife management programs. I investigated energetic and space use parameters of a population of female moose wintering in two adjacent, but distinct, landscape types (lowlands and mountains) on the Kenai Peninsula, AK, USA. I also evaluated differences between four home range models. I found that mountain females started winter in better condition, but used fat reserves at a higher rate than lowland females resulting in similar body condition estimates of moose in both landscape types in spring. I also found evidence of the functional response of habitat selection at the home range scale within landscape types. I observed a strong positive correlation between daily movement rate and home range size indicating that when females move during winter, they do so to access new areas expanding their home range. Brownian bridge, minimum convex polygon, fixed kernel, and local convex hull home range models produced different area and overlap estimates. Minimum convex polygons are least similar of model types and are not recommended to estimate areas actually used by animals.