Movement ecology of vulnerable lowland tapirs across a gradient of human disturbance

Animal movement is a key ecological process that is tightly coupled to local environmental conditions. While agriculture, urbanisation, and transportation infrastructure are critical to human socio-economic improvement, these have spurred substantial changes in animal movement across the globe with potential impacts on fitness and survival. Notably, however, human disturbance can have differential effects across species, and responses to human activities are thus largely taxa and context specific. As human disturbance is only expected to worsen over the next decade it is critical to better understand how species respond to human disturbance in order to develop effective, case-specific conservation strategies. Here, we use an extensive telemetry dataset collected over 22 years to fill a critical knowledge gap in the movement ecology of lowland tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) across a gradient of human disturbance within three biomes in southern Brazil: the Pantanal, Cerrado, and Atlantic Forest. From these data we found that the mean home range size across all monitored tapirs was 8.31 km2 (95% CI: 6.53 - 10.42), with no evidence that home range sizes differed between sexes nor age groups. Interestingly, although the Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, and Pantanal vary substantially in habitat composition, levels of human disturbance, and tapir population densities, we found that lowland tapir movement behaviour and space use were consistent across all three biomes. Human disturbance also had no detectable effect on lowland tapir movement. Lowland tapirs living in the most altered habitats we monitored exhibited movement behaviour that was comparable to that of tapirs living in a near pristine environment. Contrary to our expectations, we observed very little individual variability in lowland tapir space use and movement, and human impacts on the landscape also had no measurable effect on their movement. Lowland tapir movement behaviour thus appears to exhibit very little phenotypic plasticity. Crucially, the lack of any detectable response to anthropogenic disturbance suggests that human modified habitats risk being ecological traps for tapirs and this information should be factored into conservation actions and species management aimed towards protecting lowland tapir populations.

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The home-range concept: are traditional estimators still relevant with modern telemetry technology?

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2010.0093 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 365 (1550) ◽

pp. 2221-2231 ◽

Cited By ~ 268

Author(s):

John G. Kie ◽

Jason Matthiopoulos ◽

John Fieberg ◽

Roger A. Powell ◽

Francesca Cagnacci ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Home Range ◽

New Technologies ◽

Animal Movement ◽

Space Use ◽

Ease Of Use ◽

Home Ranges ◽

Data Intensive ◽

Use Patterns ◽

Location Data ◽

Utilization Distributions

Recent advances in animal tracking and telemetry technology have allowed the collection of location data at an ever-increasing rate and accuracy, and these advances have been accompanied by the development of new methods of data analysis for portraying space use, home ranges and utilization distributions. New statistical approaches include data-intensive techniques such as kriging and nonlinear generalized regression models for habitat use. In addition, mechanistic home-range models, derived from models of animal movement behaviour, promise to offer new insights into how home ranges emerge as the result of specific patterns of movements by individuals in response to their environment. Traditional methods such as kernel density estimators are likely to remain popular because of their ease of use. Large datasets make it possible to apply these methods over relatively short periods of time such as weeks or months, and these estimates may be analysed using mixed effects models, offering another approach to studying temporal variation in space-use patterns. Although new technologies open new avenues in ecological research, our knowledge of why animals use space in the ways we observe will only advance by researchers using these new technologies and asking new and innovative questions about the empirical patterns they observe.

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Home Range Characteristics and Diel Patterns in Space Use of Mutton Snapper, Lutjanus Analis, in St. Thomas, Us Virgin Islands

10.21203/rs.3.rs-86898/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sarah L. Heidmann ◽

Jonathan Jossart ◽

Richard S. Nemeth

Keyword(s):

Home Range ◽

Site Fidelity ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Movement Ecology ◽

Space Use ◽

Virgin Islands ◽

Home Ranges ◽

Us Virgin Islands ◽

Diel Patterns ◽

Management Actions

Abstract Background: The movement ecology of mutton snapper Lutjanus analis is poorly understood despite their ecological and economic importance in the Caribbean. Passive acoustic telemetry was used to determine home ranges of six adult L. analis, including diel patterns, in Brewers Bay, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Understanding long-term space use, including site fidelity and habitat usage, is necessary to implement effective and appropriate management actions for a species with extensive space and resource needs.Results: Individual L. analis were tracked over an average period of 316 days (range 125 - 509 days) and showed high site fidelity to relatively small home ranges (mean ± SD: 0.103 ± 0.028 km2, range 0.019 - 0.190 km2) and core use areas with low overlap among individuals. Most home ranges had a habitat composition dominated by seagrass and to a lesser degree, coral reef and/or pavement. Nighttime activity spaces were distinct from but contained within daytime areas.Conclusions: Mutton snapper showed strong site fidelity to home ranges in Brewers Bay. Two individuals that were absent from the array for more than a few hours were detected at separate arrays at spawning aggregation sites. This study expands upon knowledge of mutton snapper home range characteristics, highlights the importance of maintaining adjacent high-quality habitat types in any spatial management plan, and encourages the adoption of other types of management strategies, particularly for transient-aggregating species.

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Circles within spirals, wheels within wheels; Body rotation facilitates critical insights into animal behavioural ecology

10.23889/suthesis.58403 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Richard M. Gunner

Keyword(s):

Resource Selection ◽

Animal Movement ◽

Movement Ecology ◽

Dead Reckoning ◽

Space Use ◽

Behavioural Ecology ◽

Motion Sensors ◽

Fine Scale ◽

Body Rotation ◽

Model Species

How animals behave is fundamental to enhancing their lifetime fitness, so defining how animals move in space and time relates to many ecological questions, including resource selection, activity budgets and animal movement networks. Historically, animal behaviour and movement has been defined by direct observation, however recent advancements in biotelemetry have revolutionised how we now assess behaviour, particularly allowing animals to be monitored when they cannot be seen. Studies now pair ‘convectional’ radio telemetries with motion sensors to facilitate more detailed investigations of animal space-use. Motion sensitive tags (containing e.g., accelerometers and magnetometers) provide precise data on body movements which characterise behaviour, and this has been exemplified in extensive studies using accelerometery data, which has been linked to space-use defined by GPS. Conversely, consideration of body rotation (particularly change in yaw) is virtually absent within the biologging literature, even though various scales of yaw rotation can reveal important patterns in behaviour and movement, with animal heading being a fundamental component characterising space-use. This thesis explores animal body angles, particularly about the yaw axis, for elucidating animal movement ecology. I used five model species (a reptile, a mammal and three birds) to demonstrate the value of assessing body rotation for investigating fine-scale movement-specific behaviours. As part of this, I advanced the ‘dead-reckoning’ method, where fine-scale animal movement between temporally poorly resolved GPS fixes can be deduced using heading vectors and speed. I addressed many issues with this protocol, highlighting errors and potential solutions but was able to show how this approach leads to insights into many difficult-to-study animal behaviours. These ranged from elucidating how and where lions cross supposedly impermeable man-made barriers to examining how penguins react to tidal currents and then navigate their way to their nests far from the sea in colonies enclosed within thick vegetation.

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Home range characteristics and diel patterns in space use of mutton snapper, Lutjanus analis, in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Animal Biotelemetry ◽

10.1186/s40317-021-00237-z ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Sarah L. Heidmann ◽

Jonathan Jossart ◽

Melissa Kimble ◽

Richard S. Nemeth

Keyword(s):

Home Range ◽

Site Fidelity ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Movement Ecology ◽

Space Use ◽

Virgin Islands ◽

Home Ranges ◽

Us Virgin Islands ◽

Diel Patterns ◽

Management Actions

Abstract Background The movement ecology of mutton snapper Lutjanus analis is poorly understood despite their ecological and economic importance in the Caribbean. Passive acoustic telemetry was used to determine home ranges of six adult L. analis, including diel patterns, in Brewers Bay, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Understanding long-term space use, including site fidelity and habitat usage, is necessary to implement effective and appropriate management actions for a species with extensive space and resource needs. Results Individual L. analis were tracked over an average period of 316 days (range 125–509 days) and showed high site fidelity to relatively small home ranges (mean ± SD: 0.103 ± 0.028 km2, range 0.019–0.190 km2) and core use areas with low overlap among individuals. Most home ranges had a habitat composition dominated by seagrass and to a lesser degree, coral reef and/or pavement. Nighttime activity spaces were distinct from but contained within daytime areas. Conclusions Mutton snapper showed strong site fidelity to home ranges in Brewers Bay. Two individuals that were absent from the array for more than a few hours were detected at separate arrays at spawning aggregation sites. This study expands upon knowledge of mutton snapper home range characteristics, highlights the importance of maintaining adjacent high-quality habitat types in any spatial management plan, and encourages the adoption of other types of management strategies, particularly for transient-aggregating species.

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Range-wide factors shaping space use and movements by the Neotropic’s flagship predator: the jaguar

10.32942/osf.io/k2hqz ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jeffrey James Thompson ◽

Ronaldo Morato ◽

Bernardo Niebuhr ◽

Vanesa Bejarano Alegre ◽

Júlia Emi F. Oshima ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Home Range ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Movement Ecology ◽

Space Use ◽

Home Range Size ◽

Range Size ◽

Anthropogenic Factors ◽

Road Density ◽

Modeling Framework ◽

Transboundary Cooperation

The range-wide management of the jaguar (Panthera onca) depends upon maintaining core populations connected through multi-national, transboundary cooperation, which is dependent upon understanding the movement ecology and space use of jaguars throughout their range. Using 117 telemetry trajectories from 12 ecoregions, we examined the landscape-level environmental and anthropogenic factors related to jaguar home range size and movement parameters. Range-wide and at the ecoregional scale home range size decreased with increasing net productivity and increased with increasing road density. Also, range-wide, home range size decreased with increasing forest cover and decreasing human population density. Movement within home ranges was best explained by a different set of environmental covariates. Range-wide predictions of home range size were consistent with expectations based upon density estimates. Our findings provide a mechanism to evaluate range-wide habitat quality for jaguars and an inferential modeling framework that can be adapted to the conservation of other large terrestrial carnivores.

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Space use by animals on the urban fringe: interactive effects of sex and personality

Behavioral Ecology ◽

10.1093/beheco/arz194 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 31 (2) ◽

pp. 330-339 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Katie K Y Wat ◽

Anushika P H M Herath ◽

Adrian I Rus ◽

Peter B Banks ◽

Clare Mcarthur

Keyword(s):

Home Range ◽

Personality Traits ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Natural Habitat ◽

Movement Ecology ◽

Space Use ◽

Interactive Effects ◽

Core Area ◽

Urban Habitat ◽

Brushtail Possum

Abstract Personality traits shape individual perceptions of risks and rewards, and so, should affect how animals value and use their environment. Evidence is emerging that personality affects foraging, space use, and exploitation of novel environments such as urban habitat. But the influence of personality is also hypothesized to be sex-dependent when primary motivation for space use differs between sexes, as often occurs in polygynous species. We tested the influence of personality traits, interacting with sex, on space use by the polygynous common brushtail possum, Trichosurus vulpecula, in an urban-woodland boundary in Sydney, Australia. We quantified personality traits, including exploration, using behavioral assays in an artificial arena. We also GPS-tracked free-ranging individuals, and measured range size, core area: home range, and proportional urban range. We found that personality traits affected space use either as a main effect or, as predicted, an interaction with sex. More exploratory animals, regardless of sex, had higher core area: home range ratios and proportionally larger ranges within urban habitat. However, less exploratory females yet more exploratory males had larger ranges. Our findings provide new insight into movement ecology by demonstrating, for the first time, the sex-dependent influence of personality. The demonstrated influence of personality on urban use by possums also suggests a personality filter for wildlife, as populations transition into urban areas. Finally, as individuals at the interface between urban and natural habitat are also a conduit between the two, a corollary of our findings is that there may be personality-mediated spread of disease across this boundary.

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Variable Intraspecific Space Use Supports Optimality in an Apex Predator

10.21203/rs.3.rs-659117/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

S. P. Finnegan ◽

N. J. Svoboda ◽

N. L. Fowler ◽

S. L. Schooler ◽

J. L. Belant

Keyword(s):

Optimality Theory ◽

Ursus Arctos ◽

Animal Movement ◽

Movement Ecology ◽

Optimal Strategies ◽

Space Use ◽

Home Ranges ◽

Island Populations ◽

Resource Dispersion ◽

Resource Dispersion Hypothesis

Abstract Within optimality theory, an animal’s home range can be considered a fitness-driven attempt to obtain resources for survival and reproduction while minimizing costs. We assessed whether brown bears (Ursus arctos) in two island populations maximized resource patches within home ranges (Resource Dispersion Hypothesis [RDH]) or occupied only areas necessary to meet their biological requirements (Temporal Resource Variability Hypothesis [TRVH]) at annual and seasonal scales. We further examined how intrinsic factors (age, reproductive status) affected optimal choices. We found dynamic patterns of space use between populations, with support for RDH and TRVH at both scales. The RDH was likely supported seasonally as a result of bears maximizing space use to obtain a mix of nutritional resources for weight gain. While annually, support for RDH likely reflected changing abundances and distributions of foods within different timber stand classes. TRVH was supported at both scales, with bears minimizing space use when food resources were temporally concentrated. Range sizes and optimal strategies varied among sex and reproductive classes, with males occupying larger ranges, supporting mate seeking behavior and increased metabolic demands of larger body sizes. This work emphasizes the importance of scale when examining animal movement ecology, as optimal behavioral decisions are scale dependent.

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