Wolves Canis spp. in the Great Lakes region have expanded into rural areas where livestock production occurs, resulting in an increase of conflicts. We applied a predictive spatial model for livestock predations by wolves developed by Treves et al. (2004; hereafter the ‘2004 model’) to the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan. The 2004 model did not satisfactorily discriminate between townships with (57.1%) and without (65.7%) wolf predations (61.4% overall) that occurred during 15 April 1996 - 14 April 2009. Consequently, we adapted the 2004 model based on deer density and spatial data derived from the UP to maximize the model's predictive ability in the UP. We used matched pair analysis of six landscape variables significant in the 2004 model. Our adapted model improved on the 2004 model, and overall discriminated 70% of townships in our sample (N = 70). Affected townships (i.e. townships with predations) in the UP displayed a consistent set of landscape variables, including relatively higher proportions of pasture/hayfield and crops, and relatively lower proportions of coniferous forest. We extrapolated from the 35 affected townships to the entire UP to generate two maps, available to managers for assistance in predicting townships at higher risk of livestock predation by wolves. As wolves continue to recover in the Great Lakes region, predicting livestock predations by wolves can assist managers in limiting the number of conflicts, as well as costs of control and compensation.

In northern England, 95% of black grouse Tetrao tetrix leks occur on the fringes of managed grouse moors. Recognising the threatened conservation status of black grouse in northern England, most grouse moors have refrained from deliberate shooting for more than a decade. Despite this, black grouse are unintentionally shot in mistake for red grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus. We assessed the circumstances and frequency of shooting in northern England and its potential impact on population recovery from three independent sources, annual shooting returns as part of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust's (GWCT) National Gamebag Census (NGC), incidents of shooting reported independently to the North Pennines Black Grouse Recovery Project (NPBGRP) and losses of radio-tagged black grouse to shooting. Moors contributing to the NGC between 1998 and 2008 reported 110 black grouse shot from 13 of 23 moors, averaging 1.2% of the estimated post-breeding population. From 2001 to 2008, 152 black grouse from 28 moors were reported shot independently to the NPBGRP, equivalent to an annual 1.0% of the post-breeding population. The majority appeared unintentional (78%), with females (68%) more frequently shot. Out of 244 radio-tagged black grouse on 15 estates, four adult females were shot (1.6%). The voluntary restraint from harvesting black grouse in northern England appears effective, with incidents of shooting infrequent. Continued effort to minimise shooting incidents, particularly on the fringe of the range to encourage settlement of dispersing females, may contribute to increasing numbers and range.

We evaluated the response of male Reeves's pheasants Syrmaticus reevesii to different forest edges in a fragmented forest landscape in central China using radio-telemetry. Our fieldwork was carried out from April 2000 to August 2003 in the Dongzhai National Nature Reserve within the Dabie Mountains, China. We identified four major types of forest edges: shrub, farmland, road and residential edge. The association of male Reeves's pheasants with these edges was non-random and varied by season, suggesting that land-cover and land-use patterns surrounding forest fragments could have variable effects on habitat use of Reeves's pheasants. Shrub edges were preferred by males in all seasons and male Reeves's pheasant seldom moved > 200 m from this type of edge. Pheasants tended to avoid farmland edges in summer, stayed within 100 m of the nearest road edges in spring and moved farther from residential edges with season shifts. Furthermore, edge use by male Reeves's pheasants also differed between winter and the other three seasons. Our data demonstrated the relationships between edge effects and the spatial distribution patterns of Reeves's pheasants, and suggested that landscape configuration, including juxtaposition of forest and shrubby vegetation, should be incorporated into management and conservation for addressing edge effects at landscape scales. We suggest monitoring the spatial responses of this species to different forest edges over a longer term and at a larger landscape scale.

Some species of carnivores fluctuate between a primarily solitary lifestyle and a group-living lifestyle, depending on resource availability. Understanding the ontogeny of this transition requires analyzing changes in space use. We analyzed radio-telemetry data from 41 adult raccoons Procyon lotor to assess the influence of an experimentally maintained clumped food source on spatial structure. We compared home-range size, two-dimensional overlap and volume of intersection (VI) values between 22 raccoons with access to the clumped food resource and 19 raccoons on an adjacent control site that received similar food quantities, but for which food was distributed in a non-clumped and spatially-temporally unpredictable pattern. No between-sex differences in home-range size occurred within either food site, nor did differences in home-range size occur between the two sites. However, the experimental-site animals had two-dimensional home-range overlap values and volume of intersection (VI) scores that were nearly twice those of raccoons inhabiting the control site. These differences appear to be driven by increased overlap among females from the experimental site, as males from the two treatment sites had similar home-range overlap and VI scores. Collectively, these results indicate that the distribution of resources can significantly change the extent of spatial overlap among individuals, even when the mean home-range size of the population does not change. This further suggests that while a site's overall resource availability influences population size, the spatial clumping of resources facilitates the formation of local aggregations.

In conservation and management of large predators, effects of species are often considered separately. However, predators often interact with one another in different ways (e.g. interspecific competition, intra guild predation and kleptoparasitism) that may influence the total predation on a common prey. We estimated the total number of semi-domestic reindeer Rangifer tarandus killed by Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx and wolverine Gulo gulo at different relative abundances of the two species using a model based on diet, food requirements of lynx and wolverine and amount of food available on a reindeer. Our model suggests that total predation decreases by approximately 7.9% (± 4.8 SD) if wolverines scavenge on lynx-killed reindeer, compared to a model without scavenging. If the management goal is a constant number of predators, the model suggests that the total kill rate will be lowest in areas with only wolverines, as the estimated wolverine kill rate is much lower than the lynx kill rate. Our model showed that it is unlikely that the lowest number of reindeer killed per predator individual will be at a certain lynx-wolverine ratio, which would appear if lynx consumption of killed reindeer is low and wolverines are very efficient finding lynx-killed reindeer. However, if the management goal is a constant number of lynx and wolverines, the model suggests that the total predation is lower, if lynx and wolverines coexist in the same area compared to existing separately in different areas. The total predation by wolverine and lynx on reindeer is very important for the management of lynx and wolverine in the reindeer husbandry area in Sweden, as the current compensation scheme for predator-killed semi-domestic reindeer is based on the number of predators present within a reindeer herding district, and the compensation for wolverine and lynx is added independently of one another.

Habitat alteration by humans may change the supply of food and cover for wild ungulates, but few studies have examined how these resources are utilised over time by individuals of different sex and reproductive status. We examined circadian and seasonal variation in habitat utilisation within a moose Alces alces population in central Norway. Our study area covers forests and open habitats, both influenced by human alterations (e.g. forestry and agriculture). We expected moose to select habitats with good forage and cover in all seasons, but to select open foraging habitats mainly during night-time. Moose selected good foraging habitats, such as young forest stands and cultivated land during night, whereas the utilisation of older forest stands providing cover increased during daytime. This circadian pattern changed throughout the year, seemingly related to variation in hours of daylight and provision of forage. Young forest stands provided higher density of preferred food plants compared to older stands and were highly selected from spring until autumn. Relative to young forest, the selection for older forest stands increased towards winter, likely due to provision of higher plant quality late in the growing season, and to reduced accumulation of movement-impeding snow during winter. Selection of cultivated land varied among seasons, being highest when crop biomass was high. We also found some indications of state-dependent habitat selection as reproducing females avoided open, food rich areas in the first months after their calves were born, whereas males and females without young selected these areas in spring and summer. Our results clearly show that moose exploit the variations in cover and food caused by forestry and agriculture. This is particularly relevant for moose in Norway as current changes in forestry practice lead to a reduction in young, food-rich forest stands, possibly aggravating the already declining body conditions and recruitment rates of moose.

We present methodology for assessing browse removal to help evaluate resource limitation among moose Alces alces populations in large, potentially remote areas of boreal forest. During 2000-2007, we compared proportional removal (ratio of browse consumption to browse production) in eight areas of Interior Alaska, USA, with multi-year twinning rates of the respective moose populations. Several prior studies concluded that twinning rate provided an index of the nutritional condition of moose. We theorized that a plant-based sampling of proportional use of browse by moose in late winter would inversely correlate with the nutritional condition of moose. We sampled willow Salix spp., quaking aspen Populus tremuloides, balsam poplar P. balsamifera and Alaska paper birch Betula neoalaskana, i.e. plants with current annual growth (CAG) between 0.5 and 3.0 m above ground. We estimated the biomass of CAG and biomass removed by moose based on bite diameters and diameter-mass regressions specific to each browse species. Mean browse removal by moose varied among study areas from 9 to 43% of CAG. Moose twinning rate (range: 7-64%) was inversely correlated with proportional browse removal by moose (Spearman's rho = −0.863, P < 0.005). Proportional browse removal appeared useful in linking foraging ecology and population dynamics of moose in Alaska, and the technique may be used to quantify resource limitation in moose populations inhabiting boreal forest in a broader geographic region.

We examined the roles of sex and spatial scale in habitat selection by Alaskan moose Alces alces gigas. We GPS-collared 11 female and seven male adult moose in the Tongass National Forest, Alaska, USA, during 2002-2004. We predicted that adult male and female moose would be spatially separated outside of the mating season, consistent with hypotheses attributing sexual segregation among sexually dimorphic ruminants to allometric differences in body and gastrointestinal size, and resulting differential needs for nutrient requirements by the sexes (the gastrocentric hypothesis), and varying risks of predation (the predation hypothesis) between sexes, especially for females with young. We predicted that habitat selection would be similar between sexes during the mating season, but dissimilar and occur at different scales during periods of late gestation and lactation. We expected that during segregation, females would select for a higher percentage of forested cover and a higher edge density than males to reduce predation risk on their young. Furthermore, we examined whether differences in scale of habitat selected between the sexes was related to home-range size. Multi-response Permutation Procedures (MRPP) analysis indicated that the spatial distributions of adult males and females differed, particularly near or during parturition. The sexes selected habitats similarly during the mating season (rut), when sexes generally were aggregated, whereas sexes exhibited differential habitat selection during spring, when sexes were segregated. Habitat selection by both sexes was best explained by vegetation and landscape composition tabulated within 1,000-m radii centered on GPS locations of moose. The sexes did not differ in the scale at which they selected habitats. Mean size of the annual home range was 76 km² for females and 125 km² for males, but size of home range was not related to scale of habitat selection by moose. Our results indicate that females were likely selecting habitat with high-quality forage while minimizing predation risk during periods of sexual segregation, whereas males were selecting habitat that allowed high forage intake, which together provide support for both the gastrocentric and the predation hypotheses.

Aerial infrared imagery is used increasingly in eastern North America to provide population counts of white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus because of the increased probability of detection compared to visual methods. To date, most work using infrared technology has been conducted using imagery from Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR). Methods have produced counts, but density or population estimates have not been forthcoming because of problems with methodology and automation. Using standard photogrammetry techniques, Vertical-Looking Infrared (VLIR) data, GIS and distance sampling, we describe a method for estimating density. We estimated deer density in four bottomland hardwood sites in Arkansas, USA, with distance sampling using VLIR data and assessed the probability of detection of deer identified in the imagery. Uniform models were selected as the best representative models for each site, and probability of detection was similar (x̄ = 0.95 ± 0.05 SE) across sites. Distance sampling used in conjunction with VLIR data may provide estimates of ungulate populations in ecosystems of deciduous hardwoods with little topographic relief.

Estimating the density or abundance of mountain ungulates is difficult and rarely conducted in a statistically valid manner. The rough terrain they inhabit, their group-living habits, their relatively low density, and the difficulty of marking individuals all contribute to making rigorous estimates of abundance logistically difficult. Raw (uncalibrated) counts are usually reported, and although their drawbacks are often acknowledged, biases are rarely quantified. In September 2009, we took advantage of the presence of a radio-marked sample of argali Ovis ammon in the Ikh Nart Nature Reserve in south-central Mongolia, as well as the area's comparatively forgiving topography to estimate abundance simultaneously using two independent methods: distance sampling and mark-resight sampling. Distance sampling produced an abundance estimate of 539 (95% CI: 196-1,081) argali within a ∼ 330 km² study area on the same day that we visually tallied 189 animals. Mark-resight sampling using the Poisson log-normal model yielded an estimate of 747 (95% CI: 484-1,009) argali when we observed, at most, 223 animals in any given day. Although both were imprecise, their similarity increases our confidence that neither estimator was highly biased. Because of budget or logistical restrictions, uncalibrated counts of mountain ungulates are often the only alternative. They should be viewed cautiously, however, and when possible, more rigorous approaches to estimating abundance should be taken.

Factors affecting horn size in wild Caprinae are of biological and socio-economic interest because several species are selectively harvested on the basis of this heritable character. We analysed temporal trends in horn size in two mountain ungulates from south-eastern Spain, the Iberian wild goat Capra pyrenaica and the aoudad Ammotragus lervia. Trophy harvest is the main way in which these two species are exploited, although ‘poor-quality’ aoudads are also selectively removed. In recent years, both populations have suffered drastic decreases in number due to outbreaks of sarcoptic mange that led to the suspension of hunting for several years. Horn length in harvested male wild goats and aoudads declined during our study period. Over an 18-year period, the mean age of male goats shot as trophies rose by four years, while the age of trophy-harvested aoudads decreased by around six months over a 9-year period. Age and environmental conditions during the first few years of life explained 20% of variance in horn size in Iberian wild goat and 53% in aoudad. Population density early in life explained much of the reduction in goat horn size over time. Nevertheless, the major fall in population densities after the sarcoptic mange outbreaks did not lead to a recovery in horn size in either species. We suggest that the selective removal of large-horned animals may contribute to a decline in horn size. Other factors that may also explain the observed pattern include changes in interspecific competition, long-lasting maternal effects and reduced carrying capacity due to overgrazing during high density periods. Unfortunately, our data sets did not allow us to account for the possible effects of these factors.