Habitat selection by common brushtail possums in a patchy eucalypt-forestry environment.

2005 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mar K le ◽  
C McArthur

We investigated population density and patterns of habitat selection by the common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula fuliginosus) within a patchy forestry environment in north-west Tasmania. Population density was extremely low overall (0.04 animals.ha-1) and varied between habitats (0.01 ? 0.13 animals.ha-1). Selection indices from population surveys and animal movement data showed clear patterns for two closed habitats across two spatio-temporal scales: native forest was selected for, while 5 - 7 year old Eucalyptus nitens plantation was selected against, for both home range placement within the study area and habitats selectively used while foraging at night. Daytime habitat selection also showed the same pattern. We argue that native forest represented high quality habitat, offering both food and shelter (tree-hollows), while older plantation represented low quality habitat, lacking both of these resources. Results for open habitats (young Eucalyptus nitens plantation and grassland) were less clear. These patterns are discussed in relation to potential effects of a changing forestry landscape on this species.

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1550) ◽  
pp. 2303-2312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Hebblewhite ◽  
Daniel T. Haydon

In the past decade, ecologists have witnessed vast improvements in our ability to collect animal movement data through animal-borne technology, such as through GPS or ARGOS systems. However, more data does not necessarily yield greater knowledge in understanding animal ecology and conservation. In this paper, we provide a review of the major benefits, problems and potential misuses of GPS/Argos technology to animal ecology and conservation. Benefits are obvious, and include the ability to collect fine-scale spatio-temporal location data on many previously impossible to study animals, such as ocean-going fish, migratory songbirds and long-distance migratory mammals. These benefits come with significant problems, however, imposed by frequent collar failures and high cost, which often results in weaker study design, reduced sample sizes and poorer statistical inference. In addition, we see the divorcing of biologists from a field-based understanding of animal ecology to be a growing problem. Despite these difficulties, GPS devices have provided significant benefits, particularly in the conservation and ecology of wide-ranging species. We conclude by offering suggestions for ecologists on which kinds of ecological questions would currently benefit the most from GPS/Argos technology, and where the technology has been potentially misused. Significant conceptual challenges remain, however, including the links between movement and behaviour, and movement and population dynamics.


Ecography ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (11) ◽  
pp. 1801-1811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chloe Bracis ◽  
Keith L. Bildstein ◽  
Thomas Mueller

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1781) ◽  
pp. 20180046 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Wittemyer ◽  
Joseph M. Northrup ◽  
Guillaume Bastille-Rousseau

Wildlife tracking is one of the most frequently employed approaches to monitor and study wildlife populations. To date, the application of tracking data to applied objectives has focused largely on the intensity of use by an animal in a location or the type of habitat. While this has provided valuable insights and advanced spatial wildlife management, such interpretation of tracking data does not capture the complexity of spatio-temporal processes inherent to animal behaviour and represented in the movement path. Here, we discuss current and emerging approaches to estimate the behavioural value of spatial locations using movement data, focusing on the nexus of conservation behaviour and movement ecology that can amplify the application of animal tracking research to contemporary conservation challenges. We highlight the importance of applying behavioural ecological approaches to the analysis of tracking data and discuss the utility of comparative approaches, optimization theory and economic valuation to gain understanding of movement strategies and gauge population-level processes. First, we discuss innovations in the most fundamental movement-based valuation of landscapes, the intensity of use of a location, namely dissecting temporal dynamics in and means by which to weight the intensity of use. We then expand our discussion to three less common currencies for behavioural valuation of landscapes, namely the assessment of the functional (i.e. what an individual is doing at a location), structural (i.e. how a location relates to use of the broader landscape) and fitness (i.e. the return from using a location) value of a location. Strengthening the behavioural theoretical underpinnings of movement ecology research promises to provide a deeper, mechanistic understanding of animal movement that can lead to unprecedented insights into the interaction between landscapes and animal behaviour and advance the application of movement research to conservation challenges. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Linking behaviour to dynamics of populations and communities: application of novel approaches in behavioural ecology to conservation’.


2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1550) ◽  
pp. 2233-2244 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Fieberg ◽  
Jason Matthiopoulos ◽  
Mark Hebblewhite ◽  
Mark S. Boyce ◽  
Jacqueline L. Frair

With the advent of new technologies, animal locations are being collected at ever finer spatio-temporal scales. We review analytical methods for dealing with correlated data in the context of resource selection, including post hoc variance inflation techniques, ‘two-stage’ approaches based on models fit to each individual, generalized estimating equations and hierarchical mixed-effects models. These methods are applicable to a wide range of correlated data problems, but can be difficult to apply and remain especially challenging for use–availability sampling designs because the correlation structure for combinations of used and available points are not likely to follow common parametric forms. We also review emerging approaches to studying habitat selection that use fine-scale temporal data to arrive at biologically based definitions of available habitat, while naturally accounting for autocorrelation by modelling animal movement between telemetry locations. Sophisticated analyses that explicitly model correlation rather than consider it a nuisance, like mixed effects and state-space models, offer potentially novel insights into the process of resource selection, but additional work is needed to make them more generally applicable to large datasets based on the use–availability designs. Until then, variance inflation techniques and two-stage approaches should offer pragmatic and flexible approaches to modelling correlated data.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Hodel ◽  
John R. Fieberg

1. Animal movement is often modeled in discrete time, formulated in terms of steps taken between successive locations at regular time intervals. Steps are characterized by the distance between successive locations (step-lengths) and changes in direction (turn angles). Animals commonly exhibit a mix of directed movements with large step lengths and turn angles near 0 when traveling between habitat patches and more wandering movements with small step lengths and uniform turn angles when foraging. Thus, step-lengths and turn angles will typically be cross-correlated. 2. Most models of animal movement assume that step-lengths and turn angles are independent, likely due to a lack of available alternatives. Here, we show how the method of copulae can be used to fit multivariate distributions that allow for correlated step lengths and turn angles. 3. We describe several newly developed copulae appropriate for modeling animal movement data and fit these distributions to data collected on fishers (Pekania pennanti). The copulae are able to capture the inherent correlation in the data and provide a better fit than a model that assumes independence. Further, we demonstrate via simulation that this correlation can impact movement patterns (e.g. rates of dispersion overtime). 4. We see many opportunities to extend this framework (e.g. to consider autocorrelation in step attributes) and to integrate it into existing frameworks for modeling animal movement and habitat selection. For example, copula could be used to more accurately sample available locations when conducting habitat-selection analyses.


Author(s):  
Mark Wilber ◽  
Anni Yang ◽  
Raoul Boughton ◽  
Kezia Manlove ◽  
Ryan Miller ◽  
...  

The ongoing explosion of fine-resolution movement data in animal systems provides a unique opportunity to empirically quantify spatial, temporal, and individual variation in transmission risk and improve our ability to forecast disease outbreaks. However, we lack a generalizable framework that can leverage movement data to quantify transmission risk and how it affects pathogen invasion and persistence on heterogeneous landscapes. We developed a flexible framework “Movement-driven modeling of spatio-temporal infection risk” (MoveSTIR) that leverages diverse data on animal movement to derive metrics of direct and indirect contact by decomposing transmission into constituent processes of contact formation and duration and pathogen deposition and acquisition. We use MoveSTIR to demonstrate that ignoring fine-scale animal movements on actual landscapes can mis-characterize transmission risk and epidemiological dynamics. MoveSTIR unifies previous work on epidemiological contact networks and can address applied and theoretical questions at the nexus of movement and disease ecology.


Author(s):  
Heike Otten ◽  
Lennart Hildebrand ◽  
Till Nagel ◽  
Marian Dork ◽  
Boris Muller

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Kerches-Rogeri ◽  
Danielle Leal Ramos ◽  
Jukka Siren ◽  
Beatriz de Oliveira Teles ◽  
Rafael Souza Cruz Alves ◽  
...  

Abstract Background There is growing evidence that individuals within populations can vary in both habitat use and movement behavior, but it is still not clear how these two relate to each other. The aim of this study was to test if and how individual bats in a Stunira lilium population differ in their movement activity and preferences for landscape features in a correlated manner. Methods We collected data on movements of 27 individuals using radio telemetry. We fitted a heterogeneous-space diffusion model to the movement data in order to evaluate signals of movement variation among individuals. Results S. lilium individuals generally preferred open habitat with Solanum fruits, regularly switched between forest and open areas, and showed high site fidelity. Movement variation among individuals could be summarized in four movement syndromes: (1) average individuals, (2) forest specialists, (3) explorers which prefer Piper, and (4) open area specialists which prefer Solanum and Cecropia. Conclusions Individual preferences for landscape features plus food resource and movement activity were correlated, resulting in different movement syndromes. Individual variation in preferences for landscape elements and food resources highlight the importance of incorporating explicitly the interaction between landscape structure and individual heterogeneity in descriptions of animal movement.


2021 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 101692
Author(s):  
P. Abdul Azeez ◽  
Prathibha Rohit ◽  
Latha Shenoy ◽  
Ashok Kumar Jaiswar ◽  
Mini Raman ◽  
...  

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