Title
Long-term effects of energy development on winter distribution and residency of pronghorn in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Author(s)
Sawyer, Hall;Beckmann, Jon P.;Seidler, Renee G.;Berger, Joel
Published
2019
Publisher
Conservation Science and Practice
Abstract
An increasing global demand for energy assures continued disturbance to previously undeveloped landscapes, but understanding broader impacts to wildlife remains elusive. Among groups of species most vulnerable to habitat disruption are those requiring large tracts of land. Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) are an obligate to the open plains and basins that, similar to other transcontinental large herbivores, rely primarily on habitats where development of energy resources such as oil, natural gas, coal, wind, and solar are intensifying. To understand behavioral response to a burgeoning energy development project, we evaluated avoidance, displacement, and winter residency patterns of pronghorn in the southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem across a 15-year period using 171 collared individuals. Distance from natural gas well pads increased through time and was concurrent with declines in winter residency. Between 2005 and 2017, we found that (a) pronghorn avoidance of well pads likely increased by 408?m, (b) the overall displacement of pronghorn relative to well pads in the final year of study increased by 800?m, (c) the time pronghorn spent in the study area was reduced by 22% (nearly 1?month), and (d) the percentage of pronghorn leaving the study area increased by 57%. Such directional changes signal a strong behavioral response of an open-plain obligate to energy infrastructure, and together, these metrics indicate that pronghorn response to energy development involves both avoidance of infrastructure and partial abandonment
Keywords
Antilocapra americana;avoidance;disturbance;indirect habitat loss;winter range
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PUB24842