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27 April 2021 Fire-driven landscape heterogeneity shapes habitat selection of bighorn sheep
Victoria M. Donovan, Samantha P. H. Dwinnell, Jeffrey L. Beck, Caleb P. Roberts, Justin G. Clapp, Greg S. Hiatt, Kevin L. Monteith, Dirac Twidwell
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Abstract

Patterns in disturbance severity and time since fire can drive landscape heterogeneity that is critical to conservation; however, there is limited understanding of how wildlife interact with the spatial–temporal complexities of disturbance outcomes and at what scales. We conducted multiscale modeling of habitat selection for male and female Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis) over an 8-year period. We aimed to identify the spatial scales at which bighorn sheep responded to various habitat features and determine how fire severity and time since fire can shape habitat selection by bighorn sheep over different seasons and between sexes. With the exception of litter cover, spatial scales that extended beyond the finest spatial grain (i.e., a 30-m pixel) to include the surrounding landscape were better at predicting habitat selection. Escape terrain, elevation, fire severity, year, perennial and annual forb and grass cover, and shrub cover occurred in every best-supported model. Associations with escape terrain, elevation, and perennial and annual forb and grass cover varied by sex and season. In contrast, bighorn sheep were consistently positively associated with low- and high-severity fire. Females increased use of low- and high-severity burned areas with greater time since fire, while males tended to decrease use of areas that burned at high severity with greater time since fire. Our results support the importance of landscape heterogeneity created by fire severity and time since fire for Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep and reinforces calls to integrate disturbance-driven heterogeneity into our assessments and management of wildlife.

© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Mammalogists, www.mammalogy.org.
Victoria M. Donovan, Samantha P. H. Dwinnell, Jeffrey L. Beck, Caleb P. Roberts, Justin G. Clapp, Greg S. Hiatt, Kevin L. Monteith, and Dirac Twidwell "Fire-driven landscape heterogeneity shapes habitat selection of bighorn sheep," Journal of Mammalogy 102(3), 757-771, (27 April 2021). https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyab035
Received: 29 April 2020; Accepted: 3 March 2021; Published: 27 April 2021
KEYWORDS
escape terrain
Fire severity
Ovis canadensis
prescribed fire
scale
season
sexual segregation
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