Wapiti bed sites in Idaho sagebrush steppe

Cover use by wapiti (Cervus elaphus) in forested communities is well unders tood, but what constitutes cover in sagebrush steppe is not well known. We quantified factors affecting wapiti bed-site selection at 2 spatial scales in a sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) desert in southeastern Idaho. Wapiti bed sites had more vertical and horizontal cover than random sites. Most di fferences between bed sites and random sites were explained by distance to nearest cropland and vegetation cover between 0.5 and 1.0 m tall. Wapiti se lected bed sites in the largest patches of suitable cover available.