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Living under the scope: behavior affects survival in a heavily harvested and long-lived ungulate

Graf, Lukas1; Thurfjell, Henrik1; Knufinke, Jörg Fabian2; Ericsson, Göran1; Neumann, Wiebke1

Published Mar 13, 2025 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ns1rn8q47

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Abstract

The spatiotemporal behavior of game species may play a critical role in their survival throughout the hunting season. Where humans are the most dominant predators, avoidance of landscape features that allow hunters access to hunting grounds can be key to increasing survival. However, in Sweden there is limited knowledge about how hunters impact populations through selection of behavioral traits. In this system, hunting pressure is generally high, and approximately 30% of the moose (Alces alces) population is harvested per year. To test for differences in habitat selection in relation to survival under varying levels of hunting pressure in this long-lived game species, we analyzed 10 years of individual-based movement data of adult male and female moose in southern Sweden. We used integrated Step Selection Functions to analyze habitat selection in four consecutive time periods (before the rutting season, during the rut, during the first three weeks of the hunting season and the following three weeks). We matched habitat selection coefficients of individual animals with their fate and tested for behavioral differences between harvested and non-harvested male and female moose in each period. Our findings indicate that hunters may select for sex-specific behavioral traits in habitat selection by adult moose. We found that hunters harvested male moose that selected for higher NDVI during the rut, suggesting personality-driven hunting mortality in male moose. In contrast, in female moose, the mortality risk increased with selection for shorter distance to roads during the hunting season, suggesting selection for behavioral traits by hunters. Our findings indicate that current harvest practices for moose result in a selection for sex-specific behavioral traits. Our study highlights the complex dynamics of survival in a long-lived species under high hunting pressure, revealing how sex-specific habitat selection may impact mortality risk by hunters and, in return, might influence population management.