DOI: 10.5061/dryad.dr7sqvb5q
title: Rainfall reduces the potential for competitive suppression of a globally endangered ungulate by livestock

description: Protected areas often are too small to house populations of wide-ranging
 species. Viability of wildlife populations therefore depends on whether
 interactions with humans and their land uses are negative, neutral, or
 positive. In central Iran, we measured interactions between globally
 endangered onagers (Equus hemionus onager) and livestock by analyzing
 remotely-sensed vegetation metrics within livestock grazing areas,
 tracking 9 animals with GPS telemetry, and assessing onagers' diet
 quality through analysis of fecal samples. Resource selection by onagers
 depended both on the season and the presence of livestock. During the dry
 season, livestock reduced forage (some combination of forage biomass and
 forage quality) compared to pre-grazing periods, demonstrating the
 potential for competitive suppression of onagers by livestock when
 resources are scarce. Additionally, during both seasons, selection for
 forage by onagers was accentuated at night when livestock were absent,
 indicating onager avoidance of livestock. During the wet season, onagers
 exposed to livestock exhibited higher-quality diets than those that did
 not co-occur with livestock, suggesting that livestock grazing may
 potentially enhance forage quality for onagers. Consequently,
 collaboration with pastoralists to regularly rotate the locations of dry
 and wet season leases could alleviate negative effects of livestock
 grazing on onagers. Similar to other cases in multi-use landscapes,
 temporal shifts in the strength of competition—driven by diel cycles and
 seasonal rainfall—may characterize wildlife-livestock interactions in Iran
 and elsewhere in Asian rangelands. Our study highlights the possibility
 that conservation of an endangered mammal could be compatible with
 livestock production, at least during wet seasons.
description: The Onager_RSF.csv represents habitat covariates of used (denoted by
 column ‘case’ equal to TRUE) and available points (denoted by column
 ‘case’ equal to FALSE) by onager (Equus hemionus onager) during 2017 and
 2018 detailed in Esmaeili et al. 2024. The dataset is organized based on a
 resource selection function framework, and can be analyzed using weighted
 logistic regression models with each individual as random intercept and
 slope following the methods described in the associated publication.
 Column headings exactly match the variables described in the associated
 publication in Biological Conservation. Below is a description of the data
 contained in each column: * id: a unique identifier for each of 9 collared
 animals. * case: determines if the point was used (TRUE) or available
 (FALSE). * MSAVI and dist_water: values of MSAVI (representing vegetation
 primary productivity or greenness) and Euclidean distance to water
 extracted at each used and available points. The MSAVI value is unitless
 and the dist_water is in meters. * Weight: assigned a weight of 1 and 1000
 to used and available points, respectively. * Season: study season
 including dry or wet season. * Time: time of day including day or night. *
 Area: study area determines if the point was collected within the
 Bahram-e-Goor Protected Area (bpa) or in Qatrouiyeh National Park (qnp).