Data from: Fine-scale habitat selection by sympatric Canada lynx and bobcat

The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) and the bobcat (Lynx rufus) are closely
related species with overlap at their range peripheries, but the factors
that limit each species and the interactions between them are not well
understood. Habitat selection is a hierarchical process, in which
selection at higher orders (geographic range, home range) may constrain
selection at lower orders (within the home range). Habitat selection at a
very fine scale within the home range has been less studied for both lynx
and bobcat compared to selection at broader spatio-temporal scales. To
compare this fourth-order habitat selection by the two species in an area
of sympatry, we tracked lynx and bobcat during the winters of 2017 and
2018 on the north shore of Lake Huron, Ontario. We found that both lynx
and bobcat selected shallower snow, higher snowshoe hare abundance, and
higher amounts of coniferous forest at the fourth order. However, the two
species were spatially segregated at the second order, and lynx were found
in areas with deeper snow, more snowshoe hare, and more coniferous forest.
Taken together, our findings demonstrate that the lynx and bobcat select
different resources at the second order, assorting along an environmental
gradient in the study area, and that competition is unlikely to be
occurring between the two species at finer scales.