A taste of space: Remote animal observations and discrete-choice models provide new insights into foraging and density dynamics for a large subarctic herbivore.

Competition for resources and space can drive forage selection of large herbivores from the bite through the landscape scale. Animal behaviour and foraging patterns are also influenced by abiotic and biotic factors. Fine-scale mechanisms of density-dependent foraging at the bite scale are likely consistent with density-dependent behavioural patterns observed at broader scales, but few studies have directly tested this assertion.

Increasing fire frequency and severity will increase habitat loss for a boreal forest indicator species.

Climate change will lead to more frequent and more severe fires in some areas of boreal forests, affecting the distribution and availability of late-successional forest communities. These forest communities help to protect globally significant carbon reserves beneath permafrost layers and provide habitat for many animal species, including forest-dwelling caribou. Many caribou populations are declining, yet the mechanisms by which changing fire regimes could affect caribou declines are poorly understood.

Critical summer foraging tradeoffs in a subarctic ungulate.

Summer diets are crucial for large herbivores in the subarctic and are affected by weather, harassment from insects and a variety of environmental changes linked to climate. Yet, understanding foraging behavior and diet of large herbivores is challenging in the subarctic because of their remote ranges. We used GPS video-camera collars to observe behaviors and summer diets of the migratory Fortymile Caribou Herd () across Alaska, USA and the Yukon, Canada.

Quantifying effects of snow depth on caribou winter range selection and movement in Arctic Alaska.

Background: Caribou and reindeer across the Arctic spend more than two thirds of their lives moving in snow. Yet snow-specific mechanisms driving their winter ecology and potentially influencing herd health and movement patterns are not well known. Integrative research coupling snow and wildlife sciences using observations, models, and wildlife tracking technologies can help fill this knowledge void.