Short-term responses to a human-altered landscape do not affect fat dynamics of a migratory ungulate

According to risk-sensitive foraging theory, animals should make foraging decisions that balance nutritional costs and gains to promote fitness. Human disturbance is a form of perceived risk that can prompt avoidance of risky habitat over the acquisition of food. Consequently, behavioral responses to perceived risk could induce nutritional costs.

Population declines often coincide with increases in human disturbance, which likely is associated with direct and indirect habitat loss. Nevertheless, behavioral and physiological responses to perceived risks associated with human disturbance could be an added nutritional deficit with population-level repercussions.

Using GPS-collar data from three populations of migratory mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) exposed to a gradient of established industrial energy development on winter ranges where direct and indirect habitat loss were well documented, we evaluated whether exposure and behavioral responses to human disturbance alter changes in...