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

<b>Abstract</b><br/><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:'Times New Roman' , serif;">As a globally widespread apex predator, humans have unprecedented lethal and non-lethal effects on prey populations and ecosystems<span style="color:black;">. </span>Yet compared to non-human predators<span style="color:black;">, little is known about the </span>drivers and consequences of<span style="color:black;"> </span>human<span style="color:black;"> hunt</span>ing behavior<span style="color:black;">.<strong> </strong>Here, we characterized the hunting modes, habi</span>tat selection,<span style="color:black;"> and harvest success of 483 rifle hunters in California</span> using<span style="color:black;"> high-resolu</span>tion <span style="color:black;">GPS </span>data<span style="color:black;">. 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 </span>important<span style="color:black;"> 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 </span>that<span style="color:black;"> hunting success </span>is <span style="color:black;">mediated by the </span>interacting effects of<span style="color:black;"> hunting mod</span>e and <span style="color:black;">landscape features. Such results high</span>light 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.</span></p>