Moose movement rates are altered by wolf presence in two ecosystems

Predators directly impact prey populations through lethal encounters, but understanding non-lethal, indirect effects is also critical because foraging animals often face tradeoffs between predator avoidance and energy intake. Quantifying these indirect effects can be difficult even when it is possible to monitor individuals that regularly interact. Our goal was to understand how movement and resource selection o a predator (wolves; Canis lupus) influences the movement behavior of a prey species (moose; Alces alces). We tested whether moose avoided areas with high predicted wolf resource use in two study areas with differing prey compositions, whether avoidance patterns varied seasonally, and whether daily activity budgets of moose and wolves aligned temporally. We deployed GPS-collars on both species at two sites in northern Minnesota. We created seasonal resource-selection functions (RSF) for wolves and modeled the relationship between moose first-passage time (FPT), a method that disc...