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Mule deer juniper use is an unreliable indicator of habitat quality: Comments on Coe et al. (2018)
Author(s) -
Maestas Jeremy D.,
Hagen Christian A.,
Smith Joseph T.,
Tack Jason D.,
Allred Brady W.,
Griffiths Tim,
Bishop Chad J.,
Stewart Kelley M.,
Naugle David E.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the journal of wildlife management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.94
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1937-2817
pISSN - 0022-541X
DOI - 10.1002/jwmg.21614
Subject(s) - juniper , habitat , geography , ecology , range (aeronautics) , obligate , woodland , wildlife , forage , grouse , forestry , biology , engineering , aerospace engineering
A recent paper by Coe et al. (2018) calls into question juniper removal for sagebrush obligate species based on results from a correlative study of mule deer habitat use. Our rebuttal clarifies limitations of inference in their study regarding mule deer habitat quality, highlights the importance of winter forage on demography with omitted literature, and discusses the diverse nature of the author's study area and the spatial overlap between mule deer winter range and known juniper treatments for sage‐grouse.