Quantifying suitable late summer brood habitats for willow ptarmigan in Norway

Background Habitat models provide information about which habitat management should target to avoid species extinctions or range contractions. The willow ptarmigan inhabits alpine- and arctic tundra habitats in the northern hemisphere and is listed as near threatened (NT) in the Norwegian red list due to declining population size. Habitat alteration is one of several factors affecting willow ptarmigan populations, but there is a lack of studies quantifying and describing habitat selection in willow ptarmigan. We used data from an extensive line transect survey program from 2014 to 2017 to develop resource selection functions (RSF) for willow ptarmigan in Norway. The selection coefficients for the RSF were estimated using a mixed-effects logistic regression model fitted with random intercepts for each area. We predicted relative probability of selection across Norway and quantile-binned the predictions in 10 RSF bins ranging from low-(1) to high-(10) relative probability of selection.