Sex-specific selection of agricultural farmland by a partially migratory ungulate

Large herbivores at northern latitudes often forage on agricultural farmland. In these populations, presence of both resident and migrant individuals (termed partial migration) is common, but how migrants and residents differ in their selection of farmland is not well understood. Higher access to farmland may provide benefits to residents compensating for not following the ‘green wave’ of emerging vegetation like migrants. According to sexual segregation theory, males and females differ in body-size related nutritional needs and risk-sensitivity associated with farmland. Yet, how the sexes differ in selection of farmland through an annual cycle remains unclear.
We quantified seasonal variation in the selection of farmland by partially migratory red deer (Cervus elaphus) at broad, landscape scale and at fine, within-home range scale using 16 years of data (2005-2020) from 329 females and 115 males in Norway.
We tested predictions related to the partial migration and sexual segregation th..., The methods comprise fitting research selection functions using use-availability data for red deer (Cervus elaphus) to analyse their selection of farmland on broad landscape scale (second order selection; Johnson, 1980) and on finer, within-home range scale. The data of used locations is collected using GPS collars (Followit, Sweden, and Vectronic, Germany) on male and female adult red deer. The available locations were randomly sampled within each individual's available range (for the second order selection analysis) and seasonal home range (for the third order selection analysis), respectively. The RSF's were fitted using generalised linear mixed-effects models (GLMMs) for the second order selection analysis, and generalised linear models (GLMs) for the third order selection analysis., , # Sex-specific selection of agricultural farmland by a partially migratory ungulate

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.m905qfvc6](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.m905qfvc6)

## Description of the data and file structure

**Description of the data variables:**

* use_avail: Marks whether the data is a \"used\" or \"available\" location, based on the definition following the level of selection of the research selection function. 1 = used, 0 = available.
* hab2: Habitat variable with the habitats counted as available habitat for the red deer. Four levels; forest, marsh, mountain, and aafarmland (= farmland).
* sex: Sex of the red deer individual. m = male, f = female.
* visual.assignment: Movement category, with the levels \"migratory\" and \"stationary\".
* dens: Red deer population density index. Shot red deer per km2.
* log.dens: The log_e of the variable dens (see above).
* elevation: Altitude of the location, given in metres above sea level.
* log.elevation: The log_w og the variable elevation (se...