DOI: 10.5061/dryad.hdr7sqvrw
title: Data from: Impacts of management practices on habitat selection during juvenile mountain lion dispersal

description: Dispersal is a complex series of movements before an individual
 establishes a home range. Animals must travel and forage in unfamiliar
 landscapes that include anthropogenic risks such as road crossings,
 harvest, and urban landscapes. We compare dispersal behavior of juvenile
 mountain lions (Puma concolor) from two geographically distinct
 populations in California and Nevada, USA. These two sites are
 ecologically similar but have different management practices; hunting is
 permitted in Nevada, whereas mountain lions are protected in California.
 We used GPS-collar data and net-squared displacement analysis to identify
 three dispersal states: exploratory, departure, and transient home range.
 We then compared each dispersal state of the two mountain lion populations
 using an integrated step selection analysis (iSSA). The model included
 explanatory variables hypothesized to influence one or more dispersal
 states, including distance to forest, shrub, water, hay and crop,
 developed lands, four-wheel drive roads, elevation, and terrain
 ruggedness. Results revealed consistent habitat selection between sites
 across most landscape variables, with one notable exception: anthropogenic
 covariates, including distance to developed land, distance to hay and
 crop, and distance to four-wheeled drive roads, were only statistically
 significant on modeled habitat selection during dispersal in the
 population subject to hunting. Results indicate avoidance of anthropogenic
 landscapes in the hunted population, suggesting that hunting and
 non-lethal pursuit increases avoidance of anthropogenic landscapes during
 dispersal for juvenile mountain lions. Comparing populations provides
 valuable insights into the role of management in shaping dispersal
 behavior.
description: # Data from: Impacts of Management Practices on Habitat Selection During
 Juvenile Mountain Lion Dispersal
 [[https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70097](https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70097)]
 Processed and organized by John F. Randolph on 5/26/24 (Updated 11/15/24),
 other important contributors were Julie K. Young, David C. Stoner, and
 David K. Garcelon. ## Data: This is raw data from GPS collared juvenile
 mountain lions between the ages of 14-22 months in Modoc County
 California. All data was collected between 2016-2022. Each CSV file
 corresponds to an individual animal, with the file name representing the
 individual's identifier. All California mountain lion data was
 collected by the Institute for Wildlife Studies(IWS). ### Data Files
 F206_iws.csv - Female juvenile with ID 206 F286_iws.csv - Female juvenile
 with ID 286 M168_iws.csv - Male juvenile with ID 168 M176_iws.csv - Male
 juvenile with ID 176 M197_iws.csv - Male juvenile with ID 197 M198_iws.csv
 - Male juvenile with ID 198 M200_iws.csv - Male juvenile with ID 200
 M202_iws.csv - Male juvenile with ID 202 M208_iws.csv - Male juvenile with
 ID 208 M280_iws.csv - Male juvenile with ID 280 M281_iws.csv - Male
 juvenile with ID 281 M282_iws.csv - Male juvenile with ID 282 M341_iws.csv
 - Male juvenile with ID 341 *Due to the use of different collar companies
 (Vectronic, Lotek, and Sirtrack), the column names do not all match but
 are similar. Descriptions of column names can be found below. The provided
 code will edit the column names and make them all the same The Nevada data
 and code is not provided because Nevada mountain lions are a protected
 game species under Nevada Administrative Code (NAC) 502.370). As such, raw
 location data of mountain lions are considered proprietary and cannot be
 released without written permission from the Nevada Department of
 Wildlife. Data inquiries can be addressed to Patrick Jackson at
 [[pjackson@ndow.org](mailto:pjackson@ndow.org)]. ### Column names and
 descriptions by collar companies #### Lotek and Sirtrack Collars Collarid:
 Collar / Animal ID Device: Collar serial number animal: Animal ID
 Lion&Collar: Lion ID and collar serial number GMT: Greenwich Mean Time
 Localtime: Local time for Northeastern California (Pacific) Year: Year
 point was taken Month: Month point was taken Day: Day point was taken
 Hour: Hour point was taken Minute: Minute point was taken Second: Second
 point was taken DOP: Dilution of precision (measurement of accuracy of GPS
 point) Long: Longitudinal location Lat: Latitudinal location UTM-E: UTM
 easting location in zone 10 UTM-N: UTM northing location in Zone 10 Start:
 Day collared End: Day collar dropped or mortality event Days.after.start:
 how many days since collared Days.before.end: how many days till collar
 dropped off of mortality #### Vectronic Collars No: Number of locations
 CollarID: Collar / Animal ID UTC_Date: UTC date UTC_Time: UTC time
 LMT_Date/Time: Local mean date and local mean time Origin: Shows where the
 message originates from SCTS_Date/Time: the date/time when the message
 receives the provider ECEF X, Y, and Z: Coordinates in the Earth Centered
 Earth Fixed coordinate system Latitude[°]: Latitudinal location
 longitude[°]: longitudinal location Height[m]: Elevation of location DOP:
 Dilution of precision (measurement of accuracy of GPS point) FixType:
 quality of fix obtained 3D_Error[m]: Difference(m) between real position
 and transmitted position Sats: Number of satellites used for the fix Sat:
 channels of the GPS receiver with two columns each containing the received
 satellite number and the carrier to noise ratio in dBHz C/N: channels of
 the GPS receiver with two columns each containing the received satellite
 number and the carrier to noise ratio in dBHz Mort.Status: Shows if animal
 is alive or dead Activity: Value for internal usage only. Not connected to
 any kind of activity generated by the VERTEX Plus or GPS Plus collars
 Main[V]: Voltage of the main battery Beacon[V]: Voltage of the beacon
 battery Temp[°C]: Ambient temperature Easting: UTM easting location in
 zone 10 Northing: UTM northing location in Zone 10 AnimalID: Not Assigned
 GroupID: Not Assigned Collar user manual:
 [[https://www.vectronic-aerospace.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Survey-Collar-Manual-V2.4.pdf](https://www.vectronic-aerospace.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Survey-Collar-Manual-V2.4.pdf)] ## Code: All code was written in the program R (version 4.2.2) and is organized in steps from 1 to 11. Starting at 1, the processing and cleaning of raw data begins, and ending with 11, the model output and figures are generated. ### Code Descriptions: 01Lion_Processing - Processing raw data to a clean version 02DataResampling - Resampling GPS data fix rates 03ClusterIdentifier - Identify killsite clusters 04ClusterRemoval - Remove identified killsite clusters 05NSD - Identifying different movement states of dispersal with Net-squared displacement 06Behavior&Sex_Columns - Adding a column for sex and a column for movement state 07Combining lions and behaviors - Combining all lions and behaviors into one data frame 08Covariate_correlation - Check correlation of covariates 09Extracting_Covariates - Create movement distributions for movement states and then extract covariates for each location 10ScalingCovariates - Scale and center covariates 11_IssaModel - Running integrated step selection analyses for both California and Nevada, followed by calculating a population average and generating plots to compare the results.