Year of Award

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Science (MS)

Degree Name

Wildlife Biology

Department or School/College

Wildlife Biology Program

Committee Chair

Mike Mitchell

Committee Co-chair

Kelly Proffitt

Commitee Members

Craig Jourdonnais, Hugh Robinson, Paul Lukacs

Keywords

Cervus canadensis, elk, resource selection, wildlife management, hunting

Subject Categories

Behavior and Ethology

Abstract

Chapter 1

Regulation of rifle hunting of adult female elk is the main tool wildlife managers use to manage the abundance of elk (Cervus canadensis) in the western United States. However, elk are increasingly located in areas where hunting access is restricted during rifle-hunting season, decreasing the ability of managers to reduce elk abundance through hunter harvest. Management actions that restricted hunter access in a 26 km2 area and closed 62 kms of predominantly 2-wheel motorized routes occurred in the northern Sapphire Mountains, Montana, USA. We collected data on elk locations before and two years after the management actions and evaluated how management actions influenced the resource selection of elk during the rifle-hunting season. We hypothesized elk would perceive less risk associated with areas that restricted hunter access and closed motorized routes, and increase selection for those areas after changes. We did not find support that elk in areas accessible to hunters responded to closures of 2-wheel motorized routes, likely because closures applied primarily to routes designated for 2-wheel vehicles, which are little used during the rifle-hunting season. However, we found weak support that elk responded to restrictions of hunter access by selecting areas more after restrictions. The response of elk exposed to restrictions of hunter access was weak and dissipated with greater distance away from areas that restricted hunter access. The weak response to restrictions of hunter access may have occurred because newly restricted areas did not provide elk more security from hunters or better food than areas that they already used. Regardless of changes, elk selected restricted areas compared to accessible areas, and selection of restricted areas increased between study periods. Managers interested in maintaining elk on land accessible to hunters during the rifle-hunting season may consider balancing hunter pressure between land accessible and restricted to hunters through further collaboration with private landowners to minimize elk selection for restricted areas, and focusing closures of motorized routes over larger scales of space and time, or 4-wheel vehicle routes.

Chapter 2

Wildlife can respond strongly to perceived risk from human hunters. Responses may change how they use their environment and result in redistribution to areas restricted to hunters. Risk from hunting perceived by elk (Cervus canadensis) is changing in the western United States because of a growing number of archery hunters, and decreased hunter access in many areas. We used resource selection functions to evaluate how hunter access influenced resource selection of male elk in the northern Sapphire Mountains, Montana, USA, during 4 archery and rifle-hunting seasons using locations of 58 individual male elk. We split locations into 4 groups: locations on accessible, and restricted areas during archery season, and locations on accessible, and restricted areas during rifle season. We hypothesized elk in accessible areas exposed to more hunters would more strongly select for habitat security related covariates compared to elk in restricted areas that are exposed to fewer hunters. We estimated thresholds of resources that provide security for elk to provide wildlife managers with management thresholds. We found variable support for our hypotheses. Male elk selected areas away from motorized routes and with higher cover, regardless of hunting season or access. Similar patterns in resource selection across accessible and restricted areas suggested elk did not perceive or substantially respond to differences in risk, or that elk responded to limited hunting in restricted areas. Male elk spent little time in accessible areas, which limited harvest opportunity; 33.5% (CI = 32.7%– 34.3%) and 29.6% (CI = 28.6%–30.6%) of used locations of male elk during archery and rifle seasons, respectively, were in accessible areas. Natural resource agencies that want to manage resources to provide safety for male elk may consider managing for areas with at least 35% canopy cover, and greater than 550 m from motorized routes in accessible areas.

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© Copyright 2023 Peter O. Mumford