Spatial and Habitat Responses of Canada Lynx in Maine to a Decline in Snowshoe Hare Density
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Bibliographic record
Abstract
Previous studies of Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) within the northern boreal forest region have documented that lynx respond spatially to a decline in snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) density, as exhibited by expansion of territories and changes in social structure. I compared home range area and spatial overlap in the southeastern portion of their geographic range during periods of relatively high and relatively low hare density. Home range areas of lynx did not change between periods of high and low hare density, except that home ranges of females during the denning season expanded during the low period. The presence of kittens constrained home range areas of reproductive females during denning because females were attending kittens. Intra- and intersexual overlap did not change as hare density declined, with the exception of a decrease in overlap between females. This decrease was likely caused by decreased reproduction during the low period, which reduced potential for territorial overlap among mothers and daughters. Hare density during the nadir of cycles in more northerly populations can reach levels nearly a magnitude lower than reported for Maine during my study. This may have prevented breakdowns in territories and changes in social structure by lynx, which may have shifted life history strategies towards territorial maintenance and reduced reproduction as hare densities declined. I also investigated changes in use of high-quality hare habitat (HQHH) at the landscape scale, and habitat selection of HQHH within home ranges of lynx between periods of high and low hare density. Lynx did not change their extent of use of HQHH at the landscape scale, suggesting lynx had adequate amounts of HQHH within their home ranges to encounter hares during both the high and low periods of hare density. Lynx exhibited stand-scale selection for HQHH during both hare density periods, but the intensity of female selection for HQHH declined as hare density declined. This suggests that lynx continued to remain focused on foraging for hares during both periods, but that females may become more generalized in habitat and prey selection during the period of lower hare density. Lynx monitored during this study wore GPS collars during a period of low hare density and VHF collars during a period of high hare density. This presented methodological challenges when I compared lynx responses between hare density periods. Errors associated with VHF collars were known for this study, but errors associated with GPS collars were not. Failed fix attempts and location inaccuracy caused by environmental and satellite configurations can bias habitat selection and spatial analyses. I evaluated fix success and location error of GPS collars in 7 habitat classes during 2 seasons in northern Maine. I also used an information-theoretic modeling approach to investigate covariates influencing fix success and location error. Canopy cover had the greatest influence on fix success and the configuration of available satellites had the greatest influence on location error. Results were used to compensate for habitat bias and location error caused by GPS collars worn by lynx during a period of low hare density.
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Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it