Moose habitat selection in managed forests : a comparison between Pinus contorta and Pinus sylvestris

Sammanfattning

The species P. contorta was introduced to Sweden for production purposes in forestry in 1920 and has been planted since 1970 within forestry because of its beneficial properties in terms of damage resistance and growth capacity. Introducing exotic species can however influence ecosystem features and other species, and forests based on exotic species are not always a preferred habitat by wildlife. Pine forest is an important habitat for moose (Alces alces) and especially during winter when moose's primary diet is pine. There is a lack of studies on habitat selection between these pine species, and this study was conducted to evaluate how moose respond to the P. contorta forest, and if the habitat use differs between seasons: the study was conducted on GPS data from 29 moose located in Västernorrland county in Sweden was performed using step selection function (SSF) and conditional logistic regression. The study showed that clearcut/ young forest was the most used habitat by moose during all seasons, especially during winter, probably due to forage availability, as moose during winter primarily feed on pine. My result showed that moose during winter avoided the habitat clearcut/young forest with a higher proportion of p contorta, which could be a result of foraging preferences. During summer and autumn, moose habitat selection varied more. Previous studies have shown that this behavior is probably an effect of thermoregulation and their forage choice. During summer and autumn, my results showed that moose selected mature Pinus contorta forest compared to mature Pinus sylvestris, which could be due to the characteristic denser canopy of Pinus contorta resulting in lower temperatures in this forest.