Dynamic risk from Mexican wolves and mountain lions influences elk foraging behavior

Foraging time is a major component of ungulate activity budgets but can be limited by anti‐predator behaviors (e.g., vigilance). Multitasking can reduce the nutritional costs of vigilance under heightened predation risk, but this may depend on the response of prey to risk from multiple predators across a complex spatiotemporal landscape. Mexican gray wolves (Canis lupus baileyi) and mountain lions (Puma concolor) are primary predators for elk (Cervus canadensis) in the Mexican wolf experimental population area in east‐central Arizona and west‐central New Mexico.
, , # Dynamic risk from Mexican wolves and mountain lions influences elk foraging behavior

Authors: Olson, Julia E.; Thompson, Cara J.; Farley, Zachary J.; Martinez, Samuel I.; Boyle, Scott T.; Tatman, Nicole M.; DeVos, James G.; Liley, Stewart D.; and Cain, James W. III

Date Created: 04/08/2025

Corresponding author: Dr. James W. Cain; [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

**This repository includes data files used in modeling and analysis of five data types:**
Individual behavior, herd behavior, individual Forage Intake Rate (FIR), individual Accepted Food Abundance (AFA), and individual multitasking probability. Descriptions of these data types can be found in the introduction and methods sections of manuscript.

**The data files include:**

**FocalCovars.csv:** behavioral data and covariates for individual/focal elk.

**ISSCovars.csv:** behavioral data and covariates for elk herds collected as Instantaneous Scan Samples (ISS).

**Focal_repeats.csv:** raw focal behav..., ,