Characterization of moose personality in an anthropogenic landscape and its applications to forestry and management

Animal personality affects an animal’s behavior and its response to the surrounding environment.

Evidence of personality has been found from invertebrates to mammals; however, the topic is scarcely documented in Cervids (i.e. deer).

Deer provide important ecological, cultural, and economic services and disservices for humanity, including meat supply and browsing damages.

This project will study the behavioral ecology of cervids by conducting the first investigation of the personality of wild moose (Alces alces).

I will first characterize consistent inter-individual personality differences as observable in individuals’ activity patterns, habitat use and feeding preferences, exposure, and migration using high-resolution GPS and acceleration data.

Second, I will identify females’ strategies connected to a given personality to reduce calf predation by both natural predators and humans.

I believe that advancing the knowledge of personality in Cervids will make it a key feature to comprehend their ecological interactions and ecosystem processes, and interactions with different human interests.

In turn, this will aid to develop better-aimed management strategies, of particular importance in anthropogenic landscapes such as the Swedish forests.