Spatial scales of muskox resource selection in late winter

Abstract

I examined resource selection by muskoxen in late winter on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, by comparing use and availability at regional, meso, local, and micro spatial scales. Use of vegetation types for feeding appears to be based on selection of areas of shallow soft snow with high cover of sedges, dead vegetation, and total vegetation, and on selection against areas of little vegetation cover or deep hardpacked snow. Muskoxen used moist sedge, tussock sedge, and Dryas terrace tundra in proportion to availability and avoided barren ground, partially vegetated, riparian shrub, and Dryas ridge tundra. Selection for areas of shallow snow occurred within vegetation types as well as between vegetation types. Occurrence of sedges and grasses in the diet was greater than availability. Feeding zones were primarily on windblown vegetated bluffs; these areas are distributed in narrow bands along creeks, rivers, and the coastline.