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ABSTRACT Diet, nutrition, and reproductive success of Roosevelt elk in managed forests of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington Nicole R Hutchins The relationship between reproductive success, vegetation types in the home range, and diet composition and nutritional quality was examined in female Roosevelt elk on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington. Nine elk herds were radio-tracked during 2001 to quantify reproductive success (as calf:cow ratio), home range size and location, and vegetation types used. I measured diet composition from fecal samples, and collected plant samples of forages found in the diet. I analyzed plant samples for nutritional quality (protein content, digestibility, and energy). Herds were grouped into highly productive (December calf:cow ratio > 0.30) and less productive (December calf:cow ratio < 0.30). Highly productive herds had more 2 – 9 year old timber (P = 0.03) and less 11 – 24 year old timber (P = 0.03) available in the home range than less productive herds. Highly productive herds consumed more grasses (P = 0.008) and less shrubs (P = 0.02) and ferns (P = 0.02) than less productive herds. In addition, I found negative correlations between percentage grass or forb in the diet and percentage shrub or fern in the diet. Percentage shrub in the diet was positively correlated to percentage 20 – 24 year old timber, and negatively correlated to percentage 2 – 9 year old timber available in the home range. iii
Page 1: DIET, NUTRITION, AND REPRODUCTIVE S
Page 5 and 6: with home ranges that consisted of
Page 7 and 8: The Marin Rod and Gun Club Scholars
Page 9 and 10: TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONTINUED) Diet
Page 11 and 12: LIST OF TABLES (CONTINUED) 8 Summar
Page 13 and 14: LIST OF FIGURES (CONTINUED) 9 Mean
Page 15 and 16: LIST OF APPENDICES (CONTINUED) Page
Page 17 and 18: 2 disturbance on elk movements and
Page 19 and 20: Starkey 1996). This association of
Page 21 and 22: common method of quantifying reprod
Page 23 and 24: 8 Washington Figure 1. Study area o
Page 25 and 26: METHODS Elk Capture, Telemetry and
Page 27 and 28: 12 number of radio-collared or asso
Page 29 and 30: 14 rank herds on overall reproducti
Page 31 and 32: 16 To identify vegetation types ava
Page 33 and 34: 18 pellet groups collected for each
Page 35 and 36: 20 and forbs were taken from just a
Page 37 and 38: the principal components combined s
Page 39 and 40: 24 When outliers and non-constant v
Page 41 and 42: 26 one time for a complete calf cou
Page 43 and 44: Table 1. Reproductive success of ni
Page 45 and 46: Table 2. Chi-square goodness-of-fit
Page 47 and 48: 32 Riparian Percent Percent 50.0 45
Page 49 and 50: Grass-like plants 34 Mean percent o
Page 51 and 52: Table 5. Mean use (% of diet) of fo
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80 March/April 38 Grass (%) 60 40 2
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40 50 May/June 40 r = -0.81 Grass (
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Protein (%) 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 M
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GAE (Kcal/g) 4.8 4.6 4.4 4.2 4 3.8
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(Figure 11). Ferns, shrubs, and con
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48 2 2-9 - 9 year year timber timbe
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Survival was positively related to
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Table 9. Summary of plant species m
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Table 11. Summary of multiple regre
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56 December calf:cow Calf:Cow 0.6 0
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The high percentage of maturing tim
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60 deciduous shrubs such as S. race
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62 Overall, the crude protein of fo
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64 item for sample collection. Lich
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66 riparian areas in the study area
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68 large amounts of forbs in the su
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MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS Better avai
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LITERATURE CITED Affifi, A., V. A.
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Gessaman, J. A. 1987. Energetics. P
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McCoy, R. 2005. Personal Communicat
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78 Thorne, E. T., R. E. Dean, and W
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Appendix A. Vegetation types and st
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82 Appendix B. Bomb Calorimetry lab
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Appendix D. Minimum Convex Polygon
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Appendix F. Diet of nine elk herds
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98 Appendix H. Correlations between
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100 Appendix J. Multiple regression
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102 Appendix L. Multiple regression
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104
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