Cougars, wolves, and humans drive a dynamic landscape of fear for elk

To manage predation risk, prey navigate a dynamic landscape of fear, or spatiotemporal variation in risk perception, reflecting predator distributions, traits, and activity cycles. Prey may seek to reduce risk across this landscape by using habitat at times and in places when predators are less active. In multi-predator landscapes, avoiding one predator could increase vulnerability to another, making the landscape of fear difficult to predict and navigate. Additionally, humans may shape interactions between predators and prey, and induce new sources of risk. Humans can function as a shield, providing a refuge for prey from human-averse carnivores, and as a predator, causing mortality through hunting and vehicle collisions and eliciting a fear response that can exceed that of carnivores. We used telemetry data collected between 2017 and 2021 from 63 GPS-collared elk (Cervus canadensis), 42 cougars (Puma concolor) and 16 wolves (Canis lupus) to examine how elk habitat selection changed in..., To evaluate elk movement we captured, collared, and monitored adult female and neonatal elk for 53 months (January 2017 to June 2021). Adult elk were fit with global positioning system (GPS) radio-collars (Model Survey, Vectronic Aerospace, Berlin, Germany) that recorded a fix every 4 hours and equipped with mortality sensors that sent emails and SMS notifications after 9 hours of inactivity. Neonatal elk 0-10-days old were fit with expandable GPS collars (Model Survey, Vectronic Aerospace, Berlin, Germany) that transmitted 1 fix daily or very high frequency (VHF) tracking collars (Models M2230B and M4210, Advance Telemetry Systems, Isanti, Michigan, USA). Calf collars signaled a mortality after 8-hours of inactivity, and calves were monitored remotely (if GPS collared) or with radio-telemetry (if VHF collared) daily from capture to the end of summer (31 August), twice per week through the fall (September – December).
We captured cougars using trained dogs and baited cage traps and fit ..., , # Cougars, wolves, and humans drive a dynamic landscape of fear for elk

Data were collected by GPS collars affixed to elk (Cervus canadensis) in northeastern Washington, USA from January 2017 to June 2021. Collars were programmed to record a fix every 4 hours. Datasets are provided to conduct step selection functions for elk in the summer (Ganz-et-al-Ecology-SSF-summer.csv), fall (Ganz-et-al-Ecology-SSF-fall.csv), for adult female elk known to have a calf in the summer (Ganz-et-al-Ecology-SSF-calf.csv), and adult female elk known not to have a calf in the summer (Ganz-et-al-Ecology-SSF-NOcalf.csv). Twenty random locations were generated to pair with each used location based on the step length and turning angle of elk movement in each season. Due to the sensitive nature of the data, and as per the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Policy, the coordinates and time stamps of the used and random locations have been removed. Covariates are retained so that analyses can be replica...