Bye bye baby: effects of bear predation on the movement and behavior of female moose

Predators influence prey populations not only through direct mortality but also via non‐lethal effects that alter movement, space use, and behavior. While such indirect effects are well documented at broad spatial and temporal scales, short‐term maternal responses following calf loss remain poorly understood. We investigated how calf loss due to brown bear Ursus arctos predation affected movement metrics (movement rate and range) and behavioral states of adult female moose Alces alces during the first month after parturition in central Sweden. Using fine‐scale GPS data, we compared females that lost all calves to confirmed bear predation with females whose calves survived. We quantified movement rates, range size, behavioral states derived from hidden Markov models, and recovery time following predation, while accounting for calf age at death. Females that lost their calves exhibited 72% higher movement rates and had 2.5 times larger ranges than females with surviving calves. These responses were strongest immediately following predation and declined over time. Calf age at death strongly modulated maternal responses, with females that lost older calves showing stronger responses, suggesting that maternal investment and mother–calf bonding intensify with calf age. Moreover, the distance between calving and death sites increased with calf age (251 ± 588 m for neonates, 1369 ± 1067 m for calves older than two weeks), indicating that neonate predation occurred close to calving sites and highlighting the importance of calving‐site selection as an antipredator strategy. Our findings advance understanding of non‐lethal effects of predation by showing how these responses operate at fine temporal scales and are shaped by calf survival and age at death. Such short‐term behavioral responses may have important consequences for female body condition, habitat use, and subsequent reproductive success.