Habitat use, home range, and survival of territorial male ruffed grouse

We described habitat preference, home range, daily movement, and survival of territorial male ruffued grouse (Bonasa umbellus) in a central Missouri forest. The study area was primarily forested with oak (Quercus spp.)-hickory (Carya spp.) pole and sawtimber (63%), and mixed sapling to pole-size eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) and hardwoods (16%). One to 4-year old clearcuts comprised 2% of the area. We instrumented 32 territorial male grouose with radio transmitters and obtained a mean of 55 locations/grouse. Ruffed grouse did not show strong habitat preference in locating their home range, but within home ranges grouse strongly preferred mixed cedar-hardwoods during spring-summer and fall-winter. Survival was 0.350, 0.486, and 0.721 for annual, fall-winter, and spring-summer, respectively. Harmonic mean estimates of fall-winter and spring-summer home range were 104 and 67 ha, respectively. Mean daily movement during fall-winter and spring-summer was 392 and 263 m, respectively. Home range and mean daily movement differed significantly between spring-summer and fall-winter. Survival rates were inversely related to seasonal home-range size and mean daily movement.