Barrier Behavior Analysis (BaBA) reveals extensive effects of fencing on wide-ranging ungulates

1. As human activities expand globally, there is a growing need to identify and mitigate barriers to animal movements. Fencing is a pervasive human modification of the landscape that can impede the movements of wide-ranging animals. Previous research has largely focused on whether fences block movements altogether, but a more nuanced understanding of animals’ behavioral responses to fences may be critical for examining the ecological consequences and prioritizing conservation interventions.

2. We developed a spatial- and temporal-explicit approach, Barrier Behavior Analysis (BaBA, available as an R package), to examine individual-level behaviors in response to linear barriers. BaBA classifies animal-barrier encounters into six behavior categories: quick cross, average movement, bounce, back-and-forth, trace, and trapped. We applied BaBA to wide-ranging female pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in an area of western Wyoming, USA with > 6,000 km of...