Influence of Prescribed Fire on Focal Ungulates

The diversity and abundance of large mammals in the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area of northern BC occur because of extensive habitat heterogeneity, due largely to topographic diversity, but also because of fire as a disturbance agent.  Prescribed fires are a part of current land management actions to enhance ungulate populations.  Few studies though have sought to understand what the contribution of prescribed burns is to maintaining a globally recognized system, and whether the stability of the system as we know it is being altered by burns because of species interactions and changes to species assemblages.  We are concentrating on two focal species, elk and Stone's sheep, which both select for the high-quality vegetation resulting from burns.  Our goal is to understand the extent to which one species is being displaced or competes with the other, potentially altering system dynamics.  We will quantify both animal and plant response by monitoring seasonal movements of radio-collared animals in relation to burned areas; determining how the size, age, and vegetative quality of burns influence the use of burns; and identifying seasonal range overlap and interactions in the use of burned areas.

Habitat Segregation in Boreal Moose Populations

Moose are a focal species in most boreal systems of Yukon.  To provide meaningful input into land-use planning and impact assessment processes, the objective of this study is to quantify seasonal habitat selection and movement patterns of different moose cohorts (females with and without calves, males).  We will quantify mechanisms behind habitat segregation, in terms of risk (human harvest and predation by wolves) and forage resources, which might drive different ecological patterns and identify limiting or critical habitats.  Information obtained using GPS collars will be interpreted within the context of traditional knowledge provided by Teslin Tlingit Council. 
Collaborator: Rick Ward (Yukon Department of Environment)

Habitat Influences on Woodland Caribou

Woodland caribou are now designated as a species-at-risk nationally by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) under the Federal Species at Risk Act.  Threats to caribou increasingly involve changes in the quality and availability of habitat.  Our goal is to define the nutritional influence of habitat on caribou and to provide a quantitative basis to describe how habitat changes contribute to future populations.  We propose three phases to the work.  Phase I includes captive caribou experiments at the University of Alaska Fairbanks to quantify the effects of nutrition on maternal body condition, calf birth mass, lactation, calf growth, breeding dynamics, and carry-over effects across seasons.  Phase II consists of foraging studies with tame caribou in natural plant communities at several regional sites across Canada.  We will quantify the nutrition levels that caribou can actually acquire from different plant communities and relate the findings to habitats used by free-ranging caribou.  Phase III will bring together the research findings from the first two phases to forecast the contributions of habitat to population dynamics, and to explore the implications of changes in climate, ecosystems, and disturbance.
Collaborators: Perry Barboza (University of Alaska Fairbanks), John Cook and Rachel Cook (National Council for Air and Stream Improvement; NCASI)