| Habitat selection research is devoted to understanding how organisms make use of their environment. Moving beyond mere documentation of habitat that organisms use, this field is defined by striving to understand why an organism selects a particular habitat and to determine the mechanisms that drive a population of organisms to inhabit certain areas. Assessments of this type depend on the ability to reliably locate animals in their environment. Two methods for evaluating the location of animals in space are telemetry technology and discrete animal locations (e.g., carcasses). In this dissertation I demonstrate how to derive ecological inferences from data collected by each of these methods. First, I assess the influence of telemetry error on habitat selection models (Chapters 1 and 2). Results from this research indicate that the accurate of wildlife habitat selection models is conditional on the interaction of telemetry error, covariate resolution, and patch size characteristics inherent to the study area. For instance, higher accuracies are expected in larger patch sizes. However, for imprecise telemetry systems (mean telemetry error = 174 m, SD = 130 m) complete accuracy (1.00) was not attained until patches sizes were unusually large (> 450 ha). Large patch sizes (> 200 ha) were also necessary to achieve complete accuracy for highly resolute telemetry systems (1-5 m telemetry error). These results articulate that non-point based techniques (e.g., utilization distributions, state space models) should be employed in habitat selection research. I next provide an overview of habitat selection research focusing on the methodological techniques employed to understand animal-habitat associations (Chapter 3). This chapter serves as a guide for conducting habitat selection research. Finally, I demonstrate the influence of individual body conditions on animal decision-making using the location of predator-killed animals (Chapters 4 and 5). These two chapters document that the body condition of the individual, in combination with prevailing abiotic and biotic factors, affects habitat selection. Furthermore, this effect on prey habitat selection can generate specific landscape-level patterns in predation which have important ecological consequences. My research presents a template by which others can evaluate the effect of telemetry error and individual body conditions on habitat selection. I broadly illustrate the means by which habitat selection research can inform ecology through analyses of organism-habitat associations. |
