Habitat Partitioning and Wildfire Relationships of Cervids in Glacier National Park, Montana
Singer FJ. 1979. Habitat Partitioning and Wildfire Relationships of Cervids in Glacier National Park, Montana. The Journal of Wildlife Management. 43(2):437-444
Wildfire and habitat relations of moose (Alces alces), elk (Cervus canadensis), and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in northwestern Glacier National Park, Montana, were examined. Winter habitat use by all 3 cervids was nearly distinct with significant overlap in only 1 vegetation type, spruce forest. Winter diets of all 3 species were primarily browse (88-100%), and a high degree of similarity was found between the diets of elk and moose in spruce stands (dietary overlap coefficient, C = 0.64) and between elk and whitetails in spruce stands (C = 0.67), but competition is apparently reduced by the spatial separations. A test for association indicated that, in winter, elk and moose were highly negatively associated ( = -0.910 ± 0.073); that is, they were dispersed in a nonrandom fashion, as were elk and whitetails ( = -0.800 ± 0.085), and moose and whitetails ( = -0.920 ± 0.036). Distributions were related to snow depth and vegetation type rather than stand ages.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Singer, Francis
- Units
- GLAC
- Keywords
- Animal Studies, Fire Ecology, Floodplain, Habitats, Ungulates