Abstract

Topic: Predator-prey interactions

The role of experience – can a calf loss induce learning effects in female moose?

Wiebke Neumann¹, Lukas Graf², Lisa Dijkgraaf³, Henrik Thurfjell⁴, Joris PGM Cromsigt¹, Göran Ericsson¹, Fredrik Stenbacka¹

Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden
Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies/Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå/Alnarp, Sweden
Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden/ Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
Swedish Species Information Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden

The expression of anti-predator behaviour is an important behavioural component to enhance the survival and fitness of individuals. In long-lived species, experience can lead to behavioural changes during the lifetime of individuals. In landscapes with natural predators, harvested prey species face mortality risks from both natural predators and human harvest. For solitary species, we have a limited knowledge of the extent to which predator presence and specific events associated with predators or human harvest induce behavioural changes (e.g., birth site and habitat selection, site fidelity). Moose (Alces alces) are solitary living and long-lived that provide important ecological, cultural and economic values across their geographical range, calling for a better understanding of their behavioural ecology in the Anthropocene. In two separate studies, we used integrated step-selection functions on multi-year movement data of Swedish female moose and associated calf survival to test how brown bear presence (i.e. encounter risk) and females' individual experience of calf loss affected calving site selection and site fidelity in the following calving season. We also tested whether calf loss to hunters (i.e. harvest) induced behavioural changes that were evident during the following hunting season. Our results suggest two things. First, the presence of bears influences calving site selection in moose. Second, the experience of a calf loss to either natural predators or hunters leads to changes in habitat selection in the following year. We interpret the behavioural changes following the specific experience of a calf loss as potential learning effects in this female ungulate species.