Human disturbance is the most crucial factor for lynx in habitat
selection

Date:
January 28, 2022
Source:
University of Freiburg
Summary:
Habitat selection in wildlife is a process that occurs at different
scales: Balancing advantages, such as high abundance of food,
with disadvantages, such as human disturbance. Large predators,
with their large spatial requirements, are particularly sensitive
to these disturbances.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Habitat selection in wildlife is a process that occurs at different
scales: Balancing advantages, such as high abundance of food, with disadvantages, such as human disturbance. Large predators, with
their large spatial requirements, are particularly sensitive to these disturbances. A team led by conservation biologists Prof. Dr. Marco
Heurich and Joseph Premier from the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Freiburg has studied this habitat selection process in Eurasian lynx. Their results, published by the researchers
in Biological Conservation, provide important information for the
conservation of this species in human-dominated landscapes. "Through
this study, we can generalize the habitat selection behavior of a
large carnivore species on a continental scale fort he first time,"
explains Heurich.


========================================================================== Large dataset with animals in several European areas The researchers
led by Heurich and Premier used a data set consisting of tracking data
on 125 lynx from nine study areas across Europe. They compared the
locations available to and actually used by the predators at two scales:
the landscape scale, which shows how lynx place their home range in the landscape, and the home range scale, which shows how lynx select the
habitats within their home range. For this comparison, the research team
used a novel machine learning approach called the random forest. This
was extended to include a random effect so that variability within and
between study areas could be accounted for.

What the animals avoid and how they orient themselves On the
landscape scale the analysis revealed that lynx avoid roads and human settlements. On the level of their home range, the animals were oriented towards hiding places and the availability of prey. The researchers
found only minor differences between female and male lynx in their choice
of habitat.

Heurich and Premier found the greatest differences in lynx habitat choice
at the landscape level, where there were clear differences between the
various study areas, for example between the Swiss Alps and the plains
of Estonia.

Within the foraging areas, lynx behaved very similarly throughout Europe, preferring heterogeneous forest areas and areas that provided protection
from human disturbance.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Freiburg. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Lucia Ripari, Joe Premier, Elisa Belotti, Hendrik Bluhm, Christine
Breitenmoser-Wu"rsten, Luděk Bufka, Jaroslav Červeny',
Nolwenn Drouet-Hoguet, Christian Fuxja"ger, Włodzimierz
Jędrzejewski, Raido Kont, Petr Koubek, Rafał Kowalczyk,
Miha Krofel, Jarmila Krojerova'-Prokesova', Anja Molinari-Jobin,
Henryk Okarma, Teresa Oliveira, Jaanus Remm, Krzysztof Schmidt,
Fridolin Zimmermann, Stephanie Kramer-Schadt, Marco Heurich. Human
disturbance is the most limiting factor driving habitat selection
of a large carnivore throughout Continental Europe. Biological
Conservation, 2022; 266: 109446 DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109446 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220128141305.htm

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