Supplement C – Resource selection function analysis for woodland caribou.

Table 1 Description of variables used to model habitat selection for both caribou and wolves across the South Peace region of northeastern British Columbia

Variable / Description
Alpine / high elevation with few or no trees with primary cover being rock, snow, herbs, shrubs, bryoids and terrestrial lichens
Blk Spruce / black spruce (Piceamariana)
Fir / subalpine fir (Abieslasiocarpa)
HBS / herbs (forbs, graminoids), bryoids and shrubs
Other / specific to herd and season; combination of variables listed with too few occurrences to model
Pine / lodgepole pine (Pinuscontorta) and whitebark pine (P. albicaulis)
Spruce / other spruce varieties: Picea spp., Engelmann (P. engelmannii), white (P. glauca), hybrid (P. engelmannii x glauca)
Tamarack / tamarack (Larixlaricina)
Tree - Broadleaf / other non-listed broadleaf trees: aspen (Populustremuloides), cottonwood (P. balsamifera) and birch (Betulapapyrifera)
Tree - Other / other non-listed conifers, Douglas-fir (Pseudotsugamenziesii)
Upland Nveg / upland areas dominated by talus, rock, snow, tailing ponds, or no additional data for land cover
Water / lake, reservoir, river, stream or a non-spruce or tamarack dominated wetland (caribou only)
No Age Data / no data available to determine seral age of forest
Young / forest age 0 ≤ 40 yrs
Growing / forest age 41 ≤ 80 yrs
Mature / forest age 81 ≤ 120 yrs
Old / forest age ≥ 121 yrs
RSF_BHRW / RSF values for caribou in the Bearhole/Redwillow (BHRW) herd
RSF_Q / RSF values for caribou in the Quintette herd
Solar Insolation / measure of incoming solar radiation on a surface (W/m2)
Road / distance to road (km)
Seismic Line / distance to seismic line (km)
Pipeline / distance to pipeline (km)
SeisPipln / distance to seismic line and/or pipeline combined (km)
Cutblock / distance to forestry cutblock (km)
Mine / distance to coal mine footprint (km)
Oil and Natural Gas / distance to non-linear oil and gas well pad or facility pad ≥ 1 hectare in size (km)
Water / distance to water (wolves only; km)

Fig.1 Coefficients for the parameters in the most parsimonious resource-selection models for Bearhole/Redwillow (A; n = 3,401) and Quintette (B; n = 9,791) caribou herds during the spring season. An asterisk (*) indicates a Gaussian term and variable descriptions are given in Table 1

Fig.2 Coefficients for the parameters in the most parsimonious resource-selection models for Bearhole/Redwillow (A; n = 2,200) and Quintette (B; n = 5,868) caribou herds during the calving season. An asterisk (*) indicates a Gaussian term and variable descriptions are given in Table 1

Fig.3 Coefficients for the parameters in the most parsimonious resource-selection models for Bearhole/Redwillow (A; n = 8,669) and Quintette (B; n = 22,458) caribou herds during the summer/fall season. An asterisk (*) indicates a Gaussian term and variable descriptions are given in Table 1

Fig. 4 Coefficients for the parameters in the most parsimonious resource-selection models for Bearhole/Redwillow (A; n = 11,625) and Quintette (B; n = 28,368) caribou herds during the winter season. An asterisk (*) indicates a Gaussian term and variable descriptions are given in Table 1

Fig. 5 Resource selection map for the Quintette herd during the winter seasonacross the South Peace region of British Columbia, Canada. Four classes represent the range of quality habitat for Quintette caribou