title: Quantifying consistent individual differences in habitat selection.
abstract: Habitat selection is a fundamental behaviour that links individuals to the resources required for survival and reproduction. Although natural selection acts on an individual's phenotype, research on habitat selection often pools inter-individual patterns to provide inferences on the population scale. Here, we expanded a traditional approach of quantifying habitat selection at the individual level to explore the potential for consistent individual differences of habitat selection. We used random coefficients in resource selection functions (RSFs) and repeatability estimates to test for variability in habitat selection. We applied our method to a detailed dataset of GPS relocations of brown bears (Ursus arctos) taken over a period of 6 years, and assessed whether they displayed repeatable individual differences in habitat selection toward two habitat types: bogs and recent timber-harvest cut blocks. In our analyses, we controlled for the availability of habitat, i.e. the functional response in habitat selection. Repeatability estimates of habitat selection toward bogs and cut blocks were 0.304 and 0.420, respectively. Therefore, 30.4 and 42.0 % of the population-scale habitat selection variability for bogs and cut blocks, respectively, was due to differences among individuals, suggesting that consistent individual variation in habitat selection exists in brown bears. Using simulations, we posit that repeatability values of habitat selection are not related to the value and significance of β estimates in RSFs. Although individual differences in habitat selection could be the results of non-exclusive factors, our results illustrate the evolutionary potential of habitat selection.
authors.affiliation: Département de Biologie, Canada Research Chair in Evolutionary Demography and Conservation and Centre for Northern Studies, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, J1K2R1, Canada. Martin.Leclerc2@USherbrooke.ca.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Leclerc
authors.affiliation: Département de Biologie, Canada Research Chair in Evolutionary Demography and Conservation and Centre for Northern Studies, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, J1K2R1, Canada.|Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, A1B 3X9, Canada.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vander Wal
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental and Health Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Telemark University College, 3800, Bø i Telemark, Norway. andreas.zedrosser@hit.no.|Department of Integrative Biology, Institute of Wildlife Biology and Game Management, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, Gregor Mendel Str. 33, 1180, Vienna, Austria. andreas.zedrosser@hit.no.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zedrosser
authors.affiliation: Department for Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, PO Box 5003, 1432, Ås, Norway.|Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, 7485, Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Jon E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Swenson
authors.affiliation: Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kindberg
authors.affiliation: Département de Biologie, Canada Research Chair in Evolutionary Demography and Conservation and Centre for Northern Studies, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, J1K2R1, Canada.
authors.forename: Fanie
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pelletier
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D017753:Ecosystem; D007206:Individuality; D001503:Ursidae / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Functional response; Personality; Repeatability; Ursus arctos