Space use dynamics and habitat selection of cougars in west-central Alberta, Canada

• Author / Creator

  Smereka, Corey

• The choices animals make such as what habitat to use or where to live are influenced by individual behavior and life history traits. Gaining insight on space use patterns and habitat selection of a species can help wildlife managers in understanding social dynamics, population size and density, as well as identifying high-quality habitats that can be managed accordingly. For large solitary carnivores, such as cougars (Puma concolor), prey, mates, and safe habitat to raise offspring are resources that influence space use and habitat selection. In Alberta, human-cougar conflict has increased since the mid 1990s and management actions need to be taken to reduce conflict with people while maintaining a viable population. Information on cougar space-use patterns and habitat selection should be considered before management actions are prescribed. Thus, my main objectives were to: 1) develop methods that could be used to determine the different space-use patterns used by cougars, and 2) develop resource selection functions (RSF) for cougars of different sex and reproductive statuses during snow and snow-free periods. For my first objective, I used a combination of net-squared displacement, path-segmentation analysis, and multi-response permutation procedure to examine variation in space use patterns for 27 female and 16 male cougars in west-central, Alberta, Canada from 2016-2018. With the three analyses, a decision tree was constructed and I found that cougar home ranges were dynamic, with space use changing over time for many individuals. We fit four space use patterns: dispersers (12% of females and 44% of males), residents (58% of females and 31% of males), seasonal home range shifters (12% of females and 6% of males), and individuals that shifted to a new area during the study period (19% for females and 19% of males). For my second objective, I used a two-step resource selection function to identify seasonal habitat characteristics used by 55 adult cougars. We analysed habitat use in three groups of cougars: adult males, single females, and females with kittens. All groups selected for similar habitat types including edge habitats, close proximity to water, sloped terrain, forested habitats, and avoided roads. During the summer, close proximity to water and wetland land cover were among the most selected habitat features for all groups. Forest and edge habitats also were important for single females and males. During the winter, forested habitat was one of the most important covariates for all groups along with close proximity to water, edge habitat and slope for single females and males. Slope and open agricultural land were among the most important for females with kittens. My first chapter provides insights on animal home ranges with methods to categorize different space use strategies which may be applied to other species or systems. Furthermore, information on space use patterns may assist in understanding the social structure of a population and whether cougar harvest levels need to be altered. The results of my RSF can provide information on where higher-quality habitats occur and could be used by wildlife managers to identify source and sink populations and to implement harvest strategies to maintain a viable population while minimizing human-cougar conflict.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Habitat selection
  • Cougars
  • Space use patterns
  • Ecology

• Graduation date

  Spring 2020

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-w6hb-w583

• License

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