Fine-scale movement decisions
The global model, including all covariates for the SSFs, revealed step
selection for higher NDVI, lakes, roads, areas of verified livestock
predation, and areas of participatory mapped livestock predation, and
selection against rivers, steep slopes, elevation, boundaries, and areas
of participatory mapped risk from hyenas (Table 3). Of these, selection
against boundaries showed the strongest effect (β = 0.273, p <
0.01), yet there was marked individual variation in selection for all
covariates (Figure 4). When comparing models containing combinations of
ecological, infrastructure, and human experience/perception factors, the
two models within Δ AIC ≤2 were the infrastructure-only model and the
model containing infrastructure and human experience/perception
covariates.
Seasonal SSFs comparing all covariates across the rainy and dry seasons
showed that in the dry season hyenas exhibit an increase in fine-scale
selection for elevation, lakes, and roads, and selection against
boundaries (Figure 2b).
When comparing global models across land management types, Soysambu
hyenas differed from LNNP hyenas in that they showed selection for roads
(β = -0.19, p < 0.001). In contrast, LNNP hyenas differed from
Soysambu in that they showed selection for lower NDVI (β = -0.077, p
< 0.001) and areas of verified livestock predation (β =
-0.552, p < 0.001) and against boundaries (β = 0.62, p
< 0.001, Figure 3b). A case study on a single hyena that was
known to frequently cross between the two protected areas (Supporting
Information) showed selection against boundaries during the dry season
(β = 0.186, p < 0.001) and for boundaries in the rainy season
(β = -0.068, p < 0.01), as well as an increase in speed of
movement (i.e., log of step length) in relation to boundary selection
during the rainy season (β = 0.062, p < 0.001) as compared to
the dry season (β = 0.035, p < 0.001).