Data for: Hunting mode and habitat selection mediate the success of human hunters

As a globally widespread apex predator, humans have unprecedented lethal
and non-lethal effects on prey populations and ecosystems. Yet compared to
non-human predators, little is known about the drivers and consequences of
human hunting behavior. Here, we characterized the hunting modes, habitat
selection, and harvest success of 483 rifle hunters in California using
high-resolution GPS data. We used Hidden Markov Models to characterize
fine-scale behavior, and k-means clustering to group hunters by hunting
mode, on the basis of their time spent in each behavioral state. Hunters
exhibited three distinct and successful hunting modes (“coursing”,
“stalking”, and “sit-and-wait”), with stalking as the most successful
strategy. Across hunting modes, there was variation in patterns of
selection for roads, topography, and habitat cover, with important
differences in habitat use of successful and unsuccessful hunters across
modes. Our study indicates that hunters can successfully employ a
diversity of harvest strategies, and that hunting success is mediated by
the interacting effects of hunting mode and landscape features. Such
results highlight the breadth of human hunting modes, even within a single
hunting technique, and lend insight into the varied ways that humans exert
predation pressure on wildlife.