Thesis
ASSESSING ELK BEHAVIOR IN RELATION TO THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL PATTERNS OF WILDFIRES IN WESTERN MONTANA.
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
2025
Abstract
As wildfire activity increases in the western United States, the effect of wildfire on wildlife habitat is an important yet understudied area of research. Wildfires are becoming more frequent in the western US and fire events influence cover, forage quantity, and forage quality for ungulate species such as elk. To evaluate the influence that fire history has on elk behavior, we created resource selection functions (RSFs) to assess habitat selection of female elk within the Bitterroot Valley of southwestern Montana, USA. We assessed habitat selection at both the landscape scale (2nd order) and home range scale (3rd order) and habitat selection across seasons (summer and winter) of 92 female elk collared from 2011-2014. We used the following landscape predictors: slope, aspect, elevation, canopy cover, and distance to water and the following predictors for wildfire dynamics: distance to burn, distance to unburned, time since fire, dNBR, and distance to high severity burn. RSFs were fit using a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) with a logit link function using the glmmTMB package in R.At the landscape scale, elk selected for home ranges that were closer to high-severity fire but avoided actual high-severity burn areas, indicating elk selection of edge habitat around high-severity burn areas. Within home ranges, elk avoided burned areas and selected for unburned areas. At both scales, fire covariates were comparably predictive as commonly used landscape covariates. Additionally, relative effect sizes were generally greater in the winter than the summer, indicating stronger selection for the habitat features included in RSF models during the winter season. These results show that fire history significantly influences elk habitat selection and demonstrates the potential benefit of heterogeneity in the time since fire, burn intensities, and the resultant edge habitat across the larger landscape.
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Details
- Title
- ASSESSING ELK BEHAVIOR IN RELATION TO THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL PATTERNS OF WILDFIRES IN WESTERN MONTANA.
- Creators
- Mason Mahacek
- Contributors
- Arjan J.H. Meddens (Advisor)Daniel H Thornton (Committee Member)Lisa S Shipley (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- School of the Environment (CAHNRS)
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 71
- Identifiers
- 99901296776201842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis