Data for: Living in fear: How experience shapes caribou responses to predation risk

Wild prey can reduce predation risk by avoiding areas used by their predators. As they get older, individuals should be able to fine-tune this avoidance based on their increased experience with predators and cues associated with predation risk. Such learning mechanisms are expected to play a key role in how individuals may cope with risk during their life, particularly in altered landscapes where human disturbances have created habitat conditions distinct from those of the past. We studied the role of experience on the avoidance of risky areas by boreal caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in a system where they are under high predation pressure from grey wolves (Canis lupus) and black bears (Ursus americanus). We described the behavioural responses of caribou to variations in the risk of encountering wolves and bears, investigating whether individuals adjusted their level of predator avoidance with passing monitoring years, a proxy of increasing experience. We used telemetry data collec..., From 2004 to 2011 and from 2017 to 2018, 86 adult caribou were captured and fitted with a GPS collar. In the same study area, we collared and monitored 31 grey wolves from 2005 to 2009 and 12 black bears from 2005 to 2006. We defined four annual periods of risk for caribou (winter, spring, calving, and summer), and built resource selection function models of wolves and bears to describe the probability of occurrence of predators. Thereafter, we built resource selection functions using caribou data and tested interactions between the predator probability of occurrence and the passing years (a proxy of experience) to figure out if - and how - caribou adjusted their selection to predation risk with increasing experience., , Databases for final caribou RSFs

\*** this README file is the same for the four datasets that are representing different risk periods***

Description of column names:

* IDENT: caribou individual number

* RISK_PERIOD: biological period of risk of this dataset

* presence: GPS location (1) or random point (0); this is the dependent variable of the RSF

* habitat: the original habitat categories for caribou that are presented as dummy variables (0 or 1) in columns E to N and that are detailed in Table 1.

* Cut_0_5: ≤5-year-old natural disturbances and cutblocks

* Cut_6_20: 6–20-year-old cutblocks

* Decid_Mixt_Mature: ≥50-year-old mixed and deciduous stands

* NatPert_6_20: 6–20-year-old natural disturbances (mostly fires)

* OpenLichenWoodlands: Open woodlands often rich in lichens and bare areas

* Other: Human infrastructures, water bodies, non-regenerated areas and rare habitat features

* OldMatForest: >90-year-old conifer stands

* Regeneration: 21–50-...