Behavioral Responses of Elk to Wolves: Proximate Triggers, Response Strategies, Physiological Costs and Demographic Consequences.

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AbstractCreel IOB-0642393Behavioral responses of elk to wolves: proximate triggers, response strategies, physiological costs and demographic consequences.The direct effect of predation on prey populations can be measured by recording the rate at which prey animals are killed. In addition to this direct effect, recent research indicates that predators can have strong indirect effects on prey populations. These indirect effects are caused by the costs of antipredator responses. When prey alter patterns of grouping, habitat selection, and behavior, they often incur energetic or physiological costs. The PI will collect data to: (a) identify and understand the behavioral responses of elk to spatial and temporal variation in the risk of predation by wolves, (b) measure the costs of these responses using energetic, physiological and demographic data, and (c) relate these costs to changes in elk reproduction, survival and population growth. The specific goals are to: 1. Test several hypotheses about the ways that antipredator behavior responds to variation in risk, considering variation in both time and space. 2. Test how elk assess risk, beyond the simple presence/absence of wolves, considering characteristics of predators, characteristics of prey, and characteristics of the environment in which they meet. 3. Quantify the consequences of antipredator responses for feeding behavior, diet, and nutrition and condition. 4. Quantify the impacts of predation and antipredator behavior on survival and reproduction, including likely effects on elk pregnancy rates. The research project will provide integrative graduate training, research opportunities for undergraduates, educational activities at the local public schools, as well as internship opportunities to students in the MSU American Indian Research Opportunities program (undergraduates and high school interns). Maintaining populations of large mammals in areas affected by humans is a challenge to management and conservation in developed landscapes, and this project has clear and immediate relevance to conservation and management issues. Elk have great ecological, economic and sociological importance in the Yellowstone Ecosystem. The wolf is an endangered species, and this project will generate considerable data on wolf-elk dynamics on federal, state and private land.