Moose Movement in an Urbanizing Landscape

Humans disturb the environment in specific places and at specific times. As wildlife learn to navigate these disturbances, they react as they would to the risk of predation. Wildlife biologists can identify where and when these disturbances will lead wildlife to congregate by comparing geospatial data, such as metrics that represent vegetation, topography, or other environmental conditions, to known locations of the animal(s) in question. In Chapter I, I discuss the impact of human disturbances, like urbanization and roads, on wildlife behavior. In Chapter II, I compare the risk of moose-vehicle collisions (MVCs) to moose selection of urbanized landscapes to determine which demographics of moose are most likely to be found in targeted hunting areas. Moose captured near roads avoided both natural and urban landscapes, leading them towards intermediately disturbed areas where vehicle collisions with wildlife are common. Targeted hunting for moose along high MVC risk corridors may indeed reduce MVCs, but the effect may only be temporary. In Chapter III, I conduct a similar study to the previous chapter but focus on cow moose and their calving behavior to determine if both cows and calves benefit from the cow’s movement away from natural and urban landscapes. Cows exhibiting calving behaviors were more likely to avoid both extremes than other cows, suggesting the high number of MVCs that involve young moose could be due to cow refuge-seeking. In Chapter IV, I compare moose road avoidance and road crossing behavior to traffic and account for the potential effects of time of day and vegetation on these behaviors. Moose rarely crossed roads and avoided being within 220 m of any road. Moose movement towards roads was more likely at night on average, but crossings were equally likely at all times of day. Vegetation didn’t impact moose movement in relation to roads, but moose did move slower near roads than on average. The final chapter summarizes the research findings and provides management and research recommendations. Findings from this research informs our understanding of the distribution of wildlife in urban spaces and the dynamically changing conditions that lead wildlife to take up residence near humans.