Moose (Alces alces) behavioural and population ecology in the Revelstoke Valley, British Columbia
department or school: Science, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)
department or school: Biology, Department of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Hessami, Mateen A.
issued: 2022-06-29T07:00:00Z
issued: 2022
related degree: Master of Science - MSc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: We tested the hypothesis that: (1) moose reduction and stabilization harvest regimes implemented in the Revelstoke Valley, British Columbia, from 2003-2019 provided a greater cumulative number of moose harvested for people than if the status quo of mostly adult male moose harvesting regimes had persisted amidst background rates of moose habitat decline. Our first hypothesis included two more specific predictions and simulations: (1.2) changes in forest harvesting practices have led to a decrease in optimal seral habitat conditions, thereby reducing carrying capacity (K) for moose: (1.3) moose juvenile recruitment ratios increased amidst moose reduction and stabilization regimes that resulted in increases to per capita resource availability for moose, e.g., a density dependent response. To test these predictions, we first used resource selection functions (RSF) from mostly adult female moose GPS location data (46 individuals) collected between 2004-2019, environmental and anthropogenic data variables, and Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs) to understand the probability of use of cutblocks by moose as a function of years since cut. We used a previously estimated K of moose abundance in the study area and the results from our RSF GAMMs to forecast the annual K of moose from 2019-2040 under various simulated forest harvest scenarios. Next, we used provincial moose harvest statistics and results from the forecasted K calculations to forecast moose abundance and total moose harvested under simulated forestry and moose harvesting policies. Our RSF GAMM results showed that moose strongly selected middle aged (optimal) cutblocks (10-30 years since cut) and avoided both early seral (0-9 years since cut) and older cutblocks (>30 years since cut) across seasons. We found no effect of year on the availability of optimal aged cutblocks on moose home ranges — suggesting no behavioural changes occurred regarding moose habitat selection for cutblocks through high and low moos…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/81864
note: Moose (Alces alces) Behavioural and Population Ecology in the Revelstoke Valley, British Columbia by Mateen A. Hessami BSc., Wildlife Biology, University of Montana, 2019 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Biology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) June 2022 © Mateen Hessami, 2022 ii The following individuals certify that they have read and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, the thesis/dissertation entitled: Moose (Alces alces) Behavioural and Population Ecology in the Revelstoke Valley, British Columbia. submitted by Mateen Alexander Hessami in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science. Dr. Adam T. Ford, Biology Department, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia, Okanagan ——————————————————————————————————— Supervisor Dr. Jesse N. Popp, Indigenous Environmental Science, University of Guelph ——————————————————————————————————— Supervisor Committee Member Dr. Robert Serrouya, Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute ——————————————————————————————————— Supervisor Committee Member Dr. Robert Lalonde, Biology Department, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia, Okanagan ——————————————————————————————————— Supervisor Committee Member Dr. Kevin Hanna, Earth, Environmental, and Geographic Sciences, University of British Columbia, Okanagan ——————————————————————————————————— University Examiner iii Abstract The recovery of an endangered species does not occur in isolation from the peoples who directly share the landscape and food-web with the imperiled species. A fitting example of this concept is the mountain caribou (Rangifer tarandus), where forest disturbance has led to more moose (Alces alces) and wolves (Canis lupus), which in turn has caused caribou to decline to an endangered species status. Here, we tested the hypothesis that: (1) moose redu…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2022-09
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0415872
language: eng
degree discipline: Biology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Ford, Adam
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/81864