Habitat Selection by Female Elk During Minnesota's Agricultural Season

ABSTRACT Understanding space‐use patterns by elk (Cervus canadensis) is essential to alleviating human‐elk conflicts, particularly when crop depredation by elk can make it harder to justify to the public the need to restore elk populations to regions with agricultural landscapes. In 2016–2017, we used global positioning system data from 20 female elk to investigate their selection for agricultural cover during the agricultural season (1 May–31 Oct) in northwestern Minnesota, USA. We estimated resource selection functions with resource availability defined at the home range scale. Elk space use was primarily determined by distance to forest cover in areas proximate to agricultural fields. During diurnal periods, elk selected areas with forest cover near agricultural fields planted with legumes and cereal. During nocturnal periods, elk selected for agricultural fields with little to no canopy and that were planted with legumes. We suggest that management of elk in northwestern Minnesota will require practices that discourage the use of agriculture by elk while improving natural habitats within areas managed for elk restoration. We suggest that forestry practices (i.e., thinning and burning) could improve cover and forage openings for elk in restoration areas. Furthermore, managers could work with agricultural producers where elk occur to plant crops favored by elk (i.e., legumes) outside known home ranges and plant fields within home ranges with crops that elk avoided (i.e., hay). Collectively, these practices may shift the ranges of elk herds into restoration areas and lower conflict between the public and elk restoration efforts. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.