Survival and movements of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in southern 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: Wright, Chloe Antonia
issued: 2024-04-18T17:05:09Z
issued: 2024
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Human induced landscape change has had a profound and lasting impact on the earth, leading to habitat destruction and biodiversity loss. Understanding and reversing the consequences of anthropogenic landscape change is a priority for wildlife managers. An important step in preserving biodiversity is protecting high quality habitat, which is often inferred through resource selection functions (RSFs) and does not include an explicit link between habitat and fitness, potentially leading to incorrect conclusions about what constitutes high-quality habitat for a species. ​In this dissertation, I evaluated the effects of landscape change on mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) migration and survival in south-central British Columbia, Canada, and estimated whether RSFs correlated with survival and therefore inferred habitat quality. Specifically, I studied deer spring migration in a forested ecosystem disturbed by timber harvesting, identified how exposure to landscape disturbances affected deer survival, and integrated resource selection functions and survival models to quantify habitat quality across seasons and deer ages. To meet these objectives, I placed global positioning system collars on 201 adult female mule deer, 270 fawns, and 134 neonates from 2018 – 2022. ​I found that during spring migration, deer did not time their movements to match the pace of forage green-up, likely because green-up did not occur in a way that was conducive for deer to track. Potentially, timber harvesting has created a mosaic of early and late green-up patches, affecting the order and timing of green-up. Additionally, I found mortality risk increased in the winter when deer used areas with higher road densities and deeper snow. I also found deer that used recent burns and cutblocks had a reduced mortality risk in the summer compared to those that used these disturbances less often. ​Finally, I found that for neonates, fawns, and adults in the summer, selection positively correlated with survi…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/87869
note: SURVIVAL AND MOVEMENTS OF MULE DEER (ODOCOILEUS HEMIONUS) IN SOUTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA by Chloe Antonia Wright B.Sc., University of Florida, 2011 M.Sc., University of Montana, 2018 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Biology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) April 2024 © Chloe Wright, 2024 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a dissertation entitled: SURVIVAL AND MOVEMENTS OF MULE DEER (ODOCOILEUS HEMIONUS) IN SOUTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA submitted by Chloe Antonia Wright in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy . Dr. Adam T. Ford, Department of Biology, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science Supervisor Dr. Karen E. Hodges, Department of Biology, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Michael Noonan, Department of Biology, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Sarah Gergel, University of British Columbia - Vancouver University Examiner Dr. Ryan Brook, University of Saskatchewan External Examiner Additional Committee Members include: Dr. Robert Serrouya, Department of Biology – Adjunct, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Human induced landscape change has had a profound and lasting impact on the earth, leading to habitat destruction and biodiversity loss. Understanding and reversing the consequences of anthropogenic landscape change is a priority for wildlife managers. An important step in preserving biodiversity is protecting high quality habitat, which is often inferred through resource selection functions (RSFs) and does not include an explicit link between habitat and fitness, potentially leading to incorrect conclusions about what constitutes high-quality habitat for a species. In this dissertation, I evaluated the effects o…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2024-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0441418
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/2429/87869