DOI: 10.7291/d1j090
title: Data from: Temporal scale of habitat selection for large carnivores: Balancing energetics, risk and finding prey

description: 1.    When navigating heterogeneous landscapes,
 large carnivores must balance trade-offs between multiple goals, including
 minimizing energetic expenditure, maintaining access to hunting
 opportunities, and avoiding potential risk from humans. The relative
 importance of these goals in driving carnivore movement likely changes
 across temporal scales, but our understanding of these dynamics remains
 limited.  2.    Here we quantified how
 drivers of movement and habitat selection changed with temporal grain for
 two large carnivore species living in human-dominated landscapes,
 providing insights into commonalities in carnivore movement strategies
 across regions.  3.    We used
 high-resolution GPS collar data and integrated step selection analyses to
 model movement and habitat selection for African lions (Panthera leo) in
 Laikipia, Kenya and pumas (Puma concolor) in the Santa Cruz Mountains of
 California across eight temporal grains, ranging from 5 minutes to 12
 hours. Analyses considered landscape covariates that are related to
 energetics, resource acquisition, and anthropogenic risk. 
 4.    For both species, topographic slope,
 which strongly influences energetic expenditure, drove habitat selection
 and movement patterns over fine temporal scales but was less important at
 longer temporal grains. In contrast, avoiding anthropogenic risk during
 the day, when risk was highest, was consistently important across grains,
 but the degree to which carnivores relaxed this avoidance at night was
 strongest for longer-term movements. Lions and pumas modified their
 movement behavior differently in response to anthropogenic features: lions
 sped up while near humans at fine temporal grains, while pumas slowed down
 in more developed areas at coarse temporal grains. Finally, pumas
 experienced a trade-off between energetically efficient movement and
 avoiding anthropogenic risk. 5.    Temporal
 grain is an important methodological consideration in habitat selection
 analyses, as drivers of both movement and habitat selection changed across
 temporal grain. Additionally, grain-dependent patterns can reflect
 meaningful behavioral processes, including how fitness-relevant goals
 influence behavior over different periods of time. In applying multi-scale
 analysis to fine-resolution data, we showed that two large carnivore
 species in very different human-dominated landscapes balanced competing
 energetic and safety demands in largely similar ways. These commonalities
 suggest general strategies of landscape use across large carnivore
 species.
description: High-resolution (5-minute) GPS data was collected for lions
 (<em>Panthera leo</em>) in Laikipia County, Kenya and pumas
 (<em>Puma concolor) </em>in the Santa Cruz Mountains, CA, USA.
 For both species, non-movement points were excluded and data was
 sub-sampled to 7 other temporal grains to make separate datasets at
 resolutions of 5, 15, 30 minutes and 1, 2, 4, 8, 12 hours. \Available
 locations were generated for each dataset. For more detail please see Nisi
 et al. Temporal scale of habitat selection for large carnivores: balancing
 energetics, risk and finding prey, Journal of Animal Ecology.
description: All covariates (slope, cover, distance to boma, housing density,
 step length, and directional persistence) are centered and scaled. Prior
 to standardization, distance to boma was log-transformed, housing density
 was cube-root-transformed, and step length for pumas was log-transformed.
 For both species, matched_case_id indicates the matched case strata,
 time_scale indicates the temporal grain of analysis (to be treated as
 separate datasets), and used indicates whether a location was used (1) or
 available (0). For lions, cluster_id indicates separate clusters used for
 GEE, while for pumas each puma was treated as a separate cluster. These
 datasets was processed and prepared for integrated step selection
 analysis. Please see Nisi et al., Temporal scale of habitat selection for
 large carnivores: balancing energetics, risk and finding prey, Journal of
 Animal Ecology for more information on how this dataset was
 prepared.