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The role of forage quantity and quality in the migration and diet of a northern ungulate during their neonatal period
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- Author / Creator
- Buitrago Gutierrez, Sebastian
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Migration has evolved as a strategy to maximize survival and reproductive success, driven by the search for better resources and predator avoidance. For ungulates at high latitudes, the search for higher quality and more abundant forage has been proposed as one of the best explanations of seasonal migrations. However, responses vary among populations, species and ecosystems. In this study we focus on the Ronald Lake wood bison herd (RLBH) in northeastern Alberta that annually migrates outside of its core range to an upland meadow complex at the base of the Birch Mountains. Reasons for this migration are unknown, however, the timing of the migration corresponds to the neonatal period in late spring during green up when females have a higher nutritional demand imposed by gestation and maternal care of neonates. Our goal was to understand how forage quantity (i.e., biomass) and quality (i.e., crude protein and metabolizable energy, ME) influence the migration and diet of this herd by comparing forage characteristics between their core and neonatal ranges. We found seasonal changes in the herd’s diet, with a more graminoid-dominated diet during winter in the core range and a shrub and forb-dominated diet in the neonatal range and core ranges in late spring and through the summer respectively. Our findings also revealed that the neonatal range had significantly higher biomass (p <0.001) of shrubs and forbs compared to the core range, being 1.7 and 3.8 times higher, respectively. The neonatal range also had more crude protein and ME (p< 0.001), being up to 3.0 and 3.7 times higher than the core range for shrubs and forbs respectively. Conversely, the core range had the highest biomass, crude protein, and ME (p < 0.001) for graminoids, although this forage group is not particularly important in their diet during their migration period. With the higher energy demands imposed on females during gestation and post-parturition, our results suggest that the herd’s migration to the meadow complex with its higher quantity and quality of forage is important for female wood bison in the Ronald Lake range during this critical neonatal period.
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Fall 2024
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Library with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.