Contrasting Daytime Habitat Selection in Wild Red Deer Within and Outside Hunting Ban Areas Emphasises Importance of Small‐Scale Refuges From Humans

Prey species such as red deer (<i>Cervus elaphus</i>) select their habitats according to their requirements for landscape features and adapt this selection to the presence of predators and humans. We tested how networks of different types of protected areas-the Swiss National Park (SNP) without hunting but with additional regulations for humans, and smaller-scale hunting ban areas (all types together = HBAs)-influenced diurnal and nocturnal habitat selection in red deer compared with unprotected areas.Using integrated step selection functions, we compared habitat selection of 243 GPS-collared individuals from six study areas across the Central Alps during day and night, during the year and specifically during the short autumnal hunting season.During the day, red deer avoided habitats where encounters with humans were likely, i.e., they selected for denser tree cover, greater distances to trails, steeper slopes, and for most of the year, for higher elevation. Importantly, in summer and autumn, they selected HBAs. At night, they showed the opposite selection. This daily pattern was absent in the study area centred on the SNP, where habitat selection was less specific overall. During the main hunting season, they selected HBAs over areas without protection during both day and night, and concurrently, habitat selection was less specific inside compared with outside HBAs.HBAs allow red deer to select habitat largely independently of human impact. Accordingly, compensating habitat selection at night due to human disturbance during the daytime was observed in all study areas, except for the region centered on the SNP. Our results suggest that in human-dominated landscapes, networks of small-scale HBAs can support more natural habitat selection of the animals, especially when providing additional regulations to humans.