Differential effects of environmental predictability on ungulate movement behavior in disparate ecosystems

Increasing ecological perturbations resulting from global change processes are altering the environmental predictability (EP) of critical forage and water resources for wildlife. While research has furthered our understanding of how EP both underlies and directs animal movement, studies have mainly focused on relationships between EP and large-scale movement behaviors at the species level, neglecting the mediating influence that environmental context has on the behavior of wide-ranging species. We address these knowledge gaps by examining how mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) – a cosmopolitan species of the American Southwest – home range EP relates to average daily movement, focusing on two populations inhabiting disparate ecoregions in Utah, USA. We employed two separate metrics of EP, representing spatial and temporal constancy of vegetation productivity, and explored how home range (HR) area, mean forage availability, and season modulate the relationships between EP and daily relocati..., , , # Data from: Differential effects of environmental predictability on ungulate movement behavior in disparate ecosystems

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.gtht76hxg](10.5061/dryad.gtht76hxg)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset and code are published as a complement to:

M. Standen, M. Ditmer, D. Stoner, K. Hersey, N. Carter (2025).\"Differential effects of environmental predictability on ungulate movement behavior in disparate ecosystems\" https:doi.org/10.1002/wlb3.01484

The findings and conclusions in this publication are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy. Research funding was generously provided by The NASA Biodiversity and Ecological Conservation Program (grant nos. NNX17AG36G and 80NSSC21K1940). Funding for mule deer capture and collars was provided by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and its partners, including Mule Deer Foundation, Safari Club International, Sportsmen...,