<p>As human
activity expands across the globe, disturbance of wildlife by anthropogenic
activities such as fragmentation of habitat, and wildlife-human conflicts
escalate. The Pueblo of Santa Ana is receiving pressure from road expansion and
urban development and is concerned with the impacts of those activities upon
wildlife populations. Specifically, mule deer is a species of concern for their
Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Mule deer are important economically,
culturally, and for recreational purposes. The DNR understands the need for
better understanding mule deer ecology to manage for potential conflicts in
their interactions with expanding human infrastructure. My objectives were
first to model mule deer habitat use in and around the Pueblo of Santa Ana
during the summer and winter at different times of the day. My second objective
was to understand the relative impacts of different scenarios for road
development in the Pueblo of Santa Ana upon the disturbance of mule deer using
an Individual Based Modeling (IBM) framework.</p>
<p> Using Geospatial Positioning System telemetry collar data
collected on mule deer I used proximity based habitat predictors in a general
linear mixed model to create resource selection functions. Generally I found
that the season had a greater impact on mule deer habitat use than the time of
day. Female and male mule deer select for similar habitat but sexually
segregate in their summer distributions. My findings are consistent with
results from other locations where mule deer studies have been conducted. In
chapter two, I used the Simulation of Disturbance Activities (SODA) modeling
framework to investigate the impact of vehicles on mule deer disturbance
response behaviors, alert and fleeing. Using this framework I compared a
baseline scenario to road expansion scenarios (DamRoad, ByPass, DeerCrossing)
estimating the frequency of disturbance behavior of mule deer for each such
scenario. My results show that mule deer were disturbed most in the baseline
model. There were no significant differences in the frequency of disturbance
for female mule deer across scenarios. Male mule deer did have some significant
differences in alert and fleeing behavior across scenarios. My results may be a
function of assumptions made in my modeling. Specifically, I assumed that mule
deer would shift their areas of activity to new portions of the Pueblo of Santa
Ana in response to altered habitat quality caused by new roads. If mule deer
did not shift their areas of activity accordingly, my models may provide
inaccurate assessments of disturbance patterns. </p>
In conclusion my findings are similar to results
from other locations. Specifically, the inferences that roads and road
development are important to consider for mule deer management transcends
variation associated with the unique characteristics of the Pueblo of Santa Ana
mule deer population. Finally, my results suggest that the use of an IBM
modeling framework has the potential to provide insights into the disturbance
of mule deer by vehicular traffic even if my conclusions were constrained by
study design.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/7409396 |
| Date | 17 January 2019 |
| Creators | Daniel E. Bird (5930552) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Journal contribution |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/Modeling_Habitat_Use_and_Road_Based_Disturbance_of_Mule_Deer_in_New_Mexico/7409396 |
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