Trade-offs between forage availability, accessibility, and predation risk on winter foraging strategies of wood bison (Bison bison athabascae)

Optimal foraging theory (OFT) and the energy maximization hypothesis (EMH) have long been essential when examining wildlife habitat selection. At high latitudes and altitudes, animals in winter face greater limitations in availability and accessibility of forage. Here we explore the foraging behavior of wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) during winter within the Ronald Lake bison herd in northeastern Alberta, Canada, and examine the trade-offs they face due to limitations in forage abundance and availability (snow conditions), as well as the need to minimize predation risk. We used Global Positioning System (GPS) location data collected from 70 female wood bison to identify winter foraging sites and craters selected by bison to access forage beneath the snow. Within wetlands used by bison we selected 190 pairs of used (foraged) and random available sites to test eight a priori hypotheses explaining how bison traded-off between forage availability, accessibility, and minimizing predatio..., We recorded environmental characteristics of bison selected foraging sites, and random paired avaliable sites during the winters of 2020 and 2021. This dataset holds the values for snow characteristics, forage characteristics, and distances to nearest cover recorded from these sites. It is organized in a way to support a matched-pair logistic regression., , # Trade-offs between forage availability, accessibility, and predation risk on winter foraging strategies of wood bison (Bison bison athabascae)

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zpc866tgc](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zpc866tgc)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset contains forage, snow, and distance data for all bison foraged (use), and random available (paired) locations collected in the winters of 2020 and 2021. All data is within file \"Rawleigh_TradeoffData.csv\".

R-script for analysis and graphical representation of results is also provided in the file \"Rawleigh_Tradeoffs_code.R\"

DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Rawleigh_TradeoffData.csv

1. Variable List:
* Pair - The number of the paired use and available sites. Each pair has a unique numeric identifier for the matched-paired logistic regression.
* Use - Binary assigning the row to either use (1) or available (0).
* Cluster - Number assigning the sites to the unique wetland cluster it is part of.
...