DOI: 10.5061/dryad.1cc4v
title: Data from: Impacts of human disturbance on large prey species: do behavioral reactions translate to fitness consequences?

description: Anthropogenic disturbances have been demonstrated to affect animal
 behavior, distribution, and abundance, but assessment of their impacts on
 fitness-related traits has received little attention. We hypothesized that
 human activities and infrastructure cause a decrease in the individual
 performance of preys because of anthropogenically enhanced predation risk.
 We evaluated the impacts of commercial logging and road networks on the
 fitness of a large herbivore known to be sensitive to human disturbance:
 the forest-dwelling woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou). For 8
 consecutive years (2004–2011) we monitored 59 individuals using GPS
 telemetry in the Charlevoix region of Québec, Canada. We also used Very
 High Frequency telemetry locations collected on 28 individuals from
 1999–2000. We related habitat selection of adult caribou at various
 spatio-temporal scales to their probability of dying from predation, and
 to indices of their reproductive success and energy expenditure. The
 probability that adult caribou died from predation increased with the
 proportion of recent disturbances (including cutblocks ≤5 years old) in
 their annual home range. The respective effects of increasing paved and
 forestry road densities depended upon the overall road density within the
 home range of caribou. At a finer scale of 10 to 15 days before their
 death, caribou that were killed by a predator selected for recent
 disturbances more than individuals that survived, and avoided old mature
 conifer stands. The home range area of caribou increased with road
 density. Finally, the composition of the home range of females had no
 effect on their reproductive success. We show that human activities and
 infrastructure may influence the individual performance of large prey
 species in highly managed regions. We outline the need to consider the
 full set of impacts that human development may have on threatened animal
 populations, with particular emphasis on predator-prey relationships and
 population dynamics.
description: Data on the annual home
 range of Charlevoix caribouDescription of the home
 range data collected using VHF telemetry from 1999-2000, and GPS telemetry
 from 2004-2011, on 87 forest-dwelling caribou in the Charlevoix region of
 Québec, Canada. Each row corresponds to one annual home range (one
 individual-year). Included are data on individuals (ID, sex, age, type of
 collar); telemetry program (year, start- and end-dates of monitoring, and
 duration); status of individuals for the broad scale survival analysis
 (whether individuals died [1=died], and of which cause [1=predation,
 2=natural, 4=undetermined]); information on reproductive success of
 females from 2004-2007 (whether females had a calf [1=calved], and whether
 he survived through its first year of life [1=survived]); information on
 space use (home range size and mean movement rate); and finally home range
 composition (active, derelict, and total road density, and percentage of
 each habitat class).Table_Data.xlsx