Monitoring movement behavior enhances recognition and understanding of capture-induced abandonment of moose neonates

Abstract

Capturing and collaring mammalian newborns is a valued technique in studies focused on survival, cause-specific mortality, maternal investment, and other aspects of animal behavior and ecology. Abandonment of ungulate neonates has been highly variable and often may be underestimated due to limited understanding of this maternal behavior. In a study of survival and cause-specific mortality of GPS-collared moose (Alces americanus) calves in a declining population in northeastern Minnesota, 9 of 49 (18.4%) neonates (25 females and 24 males) were abandoned postcapture (8–17 May 2013) by 7 of 31 (22.6%) mothers. During the 1–6-h-interval postcapture, nonabandoning and abandoning mothers were similar distances from their calves. However, for nonabandoning mothers, from 13 to 48 h postcapture mean 6-h-interval distances to their calves steadily approached 0 m, whereas for abandoning mothers, mean distances to their calves continued to increase from 7 to 48 h. Five of the 7 abandoning mothers stayed with their ca...