The effects of translocation on the spatial ecology of tiger snakes (Notechis scutatus) in a suburban landscape

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 165 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Butler ◽  
B. Malone ◽  
N. Clemann
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Ecology ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Radio Telemetry ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Residential Areas ◽  
Perceived Risks ◽  
Radio Transmitters ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Suburban Landscape ◽  
Very High

In many suburban parts of Australia the removal of snakes from private property by licenced snake catchers is employed to mitigate perceived risks to humans and their pets. The number of snakes translocated around greater Melbourne, Victoria, each year can be very high (at least many hundreds). However, the effects of translocation on the behaviour and welfare of individual snakes, and the impact on existing snake populations at release sites are unknown. We used radio-telemetry of ‘resident’ and translocated snakes to investigate the consequences of translocation on the spatial ecology of tiger snakes (Notechis scutatus) in a suburban parkland near Melbourne. Fourteen snakes (two female and four male residents, and four female and four male translocated snakes) implanted with radio-transmitters were tracked between spring 2002 and autumn 2003. Translocated snakes exhibited home ranges ~6 times larger than those of residents, although each group maintained core ranges of similar size. Translocated snakes travelled longer distances and were often located in residential areas adjacent to the park, whereas resident snakes were never located outside of the park.

Radio-tagging and tracking of translocated trout cod (Maccullochella macquariensis: Percichthyidae) in an upland river

2009 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 346 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. C. Ebner ◽  
L. Johnston ◽  
M. Lintermans
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Ecology ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Release Site ◽  
Early Morning ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Radio Tracking ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Radio Transmitters ◽  
Radio Tagging ◽  
Species Rarity

Radio-tracking provides an effective means of studying the spatial ecology of threatened fishes where almost inaccessible habitats and species rarity render conventional mark–recapture methods impractical. Initially, validation of an effective radio-tagging method is required; in the present study, an aquaria trial based on nine hatchery-reared, adult male Maccullochella maquariensis (Percichthyidae) was conducted. Fish resumed feeding within days of being internally implanted with a radio-tag, and tag rejection was not observed (0%, n = 9) based on a 2-month observational period. Following release into an upland stream, individual-specific movements resulted in upstream (n = 1) and downstream (n = 6) dispersal as well as fidelity to the release site (n = 2) at the completion of the study. Individuals established small home-ranges (mean length of river used by an individual per diel period ranged from 47 to 292 m) and were most active in the early morning and evening (n = 6). Complete survivorship of individuals bearing active radio-transmitters (n = 8) was recorded up until 4 months after release. However, an estimated zero or one individual was alive when the last active radio-tag expired 11 months after release (n = 8). The present study highlights the use of radio-tracking in monitoring the dispersal and survivorship of small numbers of hatchery-reared threatened fish released into natural habitats as part of species re-introduction programs.

scholarly journals SPATIAL ECOLOGY AND HABITAT UTILIZATION OF MONTEZUMA QUAIL IN THE DAVIS MOUNTAINS OF TEXAS

2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis D. Greene ◽  
Louis A. Harveson ◽  
Joshua G. Cross ◽  
Ryan S. Luna
Keyword(s):  
Home Range ◽  
Spatial Ecology ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Home Range Size ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
Davis Mountains ◽  
Radio Transmitters ◽  
Montezuma Quail

Abstract Montezuma quail (Cyrtonyx montezumae) occur throughout the desert mountain ranges in the Trans-Pecos of Texas as well as Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico. Limited information on life history and ecology of the species is available due to the cryptic nature of the bird. Home range, movements, and preferred habitats have been speculated upon in previous literature with the use of observational or anecdotal data. We used innovative trapping techniques and technologically advanced radio transmitters to assess these ecological parameters for Montezuma quail. The goal of this study was to monitor Montezuma quail to determine home range size, movements, and habitat preference for the Davis Mountains population. We captured a total of 72 birds over the course of two years (2009 – 2010) (36M, 35F, 1 Undetermined). Thirteen individuals with >25 locations/bird were used to estimate the home range, movement, and habitat selection analyses. Home ranges (95% kernel density estimators) averaged 12.83 ha and varied greatly (0.02 – 43.29 ha). Maximum straight-line distances between known locations within home ranges varied from 0.73 – 14.83 km. Distances of movements were greater than previously reported. Preferred habitats consisted of Canyon Mountain Savannah and Foothill Slope Mountain Savannah across three spatial scales. Although our study was able to address some basic ecological attributes of Montezuma quail, additional research is warranted to better understand their population dynamics.

scholarly journals The Spatial Ecology of the Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) in southeastern Louisiana

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Borgardt ◽  
Brian Crother ◽  
Kaleb Hill
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Ecology ◽  
Radio Telemetry ◽  
Gravid Female ◽  
Habitat Type ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Crotalus Horridus ◽  
Timber Rattlesnake ◽  
Timber Rattlesnakes ◽  
Southeastern Louisiana

The Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) has a large distribution spanning much of the eastern United States. Because temperature, habitat type, prey composition and abundance, and a variety of other factors may dictate reptile behavior, populations of conspecific species may exhibit behavioral differences across latitudinal and elevational gradients. Using radio telemetry, we tracked 10 adult Timber Rattlesnakes (7 males, 3 females) from May 2016 to June 2017 in southeastern Louisiana to examine the spatial ecology of male and non-gravid female snakes. Mean annual and seasonal home ranges of non-gravid female Timber Rattlesnakes were not statistically different from that of males. Mean seasonal home range sizes and average distances travelled of both sexes was smallest in winter, and had a general increasing trend beginning in spring with a peak in fall. These increases seemed to coincide with the breeding season, taking place from early July until the end of November. Comparison of this study with other studies throughout its distribution could have implications towards future management of conservation for other southern populations of Timber Rattlesnakes.

scholarly journals Movements and use of space by Mangrove Cuckoos (Coccyzus minor) in Florida, USA

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3534
Author(s):  
John David Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Home Range ◽  
Mangrove Forest ◽  
Site Fidelity ◽  
Radio Telemetry ◽  
The Body ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Southwest Florida ◽  
Radio Transmitters ◽  
History Of ◽  
Initial Description

I used radio-telemetry to track the movements of Mangrove Cuckoos (Coccyzus minor) captured in southwest Florida. Relatively little is known about the natural history of Mangrove Cuckoos, and my goal was to provide an initial description of how individuals use space, with a focus on the size and placement of home ranges. I captured and affixed VHF radio-transmitters to 32 individuals between 2012 and 2015, and obtained a sufficient number of relocations from 16 of them to estimate home-range boundaries and describe patterns of movement. Home-range area varied widely among individuals, but in general was roughly four times larger than expected based on the body size of Mangrove Cuckoos. The median core area (50% isopleth) of a home range was 42 ha (range: 9–91 ha), and the median overall home range (90% isopleth) was 128 ha (range: 28–319 ha). The median distance between estimated locations recorded on subsequent days was 298 m (95% CI [187 m–409 m]), but variation within and among individuals was substantial, and it was not uncommon to relocate individuals >1 km from their location on the previous day. Site fidelity by individual birds was low; although Mangrove Cuckoos were present year-round within the study area, I did not observe any individuals that remained on a single home range throughout the year. Although individual birds showed no evidence of avoiding anthropogenic edges, they did not incorporate developed areas into their daily movements and home ranges consisted almost entirely of mangrove forest. The persistence of the species in the study area depended on a network of conserved lands–mostly public, but some privately conserved land as well–because large patches of mangrove forest did not occur on tracts left unprotected from development.

scholarly journals Movements and use of space by Mangrove Cuckoos (Coccyzus minor) in Florida, USA

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Home Range ◽  
Mangrove Forest ◽  
Site Fidelity ◽  
Radio Telemetry ◽  
The Body ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Southwest Florida ◽  
Radio Transmitters ◽  
History Of ◽  
Initial Description

I used radio-telemetry to track the movements of Mangrove Cuckoos (Coccyzus minor) captured in southwest Florida. Relatively little is known about the natural history of Mangrove Cuckoos, and my goal was to provide an initial description of how individuals use space, with a focus on the size and placement of home ranges. I captured and affixed VHF radio-transmitters to 32 individuals between 2012 and 2015, and obtained a sufficient number of relocations from 16 of them to estimate home-range boundaries and describe patterns of movement. Home-range area varied widely among individuals, but in general, was roughly four times larger than expected based on the body size of Mangrove Cuckoos. The median core area (50% isopleth) of a home range was 42 ha (range: 9 – 91 ha), and the median overall home range (90% isopleth) was 128 ha (range: 28 – 319 ha). The median distance between estimated locations recorded on subsequent days was 298 m (95% CI = 187 m – 409 m), but variation within and among individuals was substantial, and it was not uncommon to relocate individuals >1 km from their location on the previous day. Site fidelity by individual birds was low; although Mangrove Cuckoos were present year-round within the study area, I did not observe any individuals that remained on a single home range throughout the year. Although individual birds showed no evidence of avoiding anthropogenic edges, they did not incorporate developed areas into their daily movements and home ranges consisted almost entirely of mangrove forest. The persistence of the species in the study area depended on a network of conserved lands – mostly public, but some privately conserved land as well – because large patches of mangrove forest did not occur on tracts left unprotected from development.

scholarly journals Accounting for location uncertainty in azimuthal telemetry data improves ecological inference

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian D. Gerber ◽  
Mevin B. Hooten ◽  
Christopher P. Peck ◽  
Mindy B. Rice ◽  
James H. Gammonley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Home Range ◽  
Resource Selection ◽  
Radio Telemetry ◽  
Model Development ◽  
Ecological Models ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Ecological Inference ◽  
Future Design ◽  
Location Uncertainty ◽  
The Impact

AbstractCharacterizing animal space use is critical to understand ecological relationships. Despite many decades of using radio-telemetry to track animals and make spatial inference, there are few statistical options to handle these unique data and no synthetic framework for modeling animal location uncertainty and accounting for it in ecological models. We describe a novel azimuthal telemetry model (ATM) to account for azimuthal uncertainty with covariates and propagate location uncertainty into ecological models. We evaluate the ATM with commonly used estimators in several study design scenarios using simulation. We also provide illustra-tive empirical examples, demonstrating the impact of ignoring location uncertainty within home range and resource selection analyses. We found the ATM to have good performance and the only model that has appropriate measures of coverage. Ignoring animal location un-certainty when estimating resource selection or home ranges can have pernicious effects on ecological inference. We demonstrate that home range estimates can be overly confident and conservative when ignoring location uncertainty and resource selection coefficients can lead to incorrect inference and over confidence in the magnitude of selection. Our findings and model development have important implications for interpreting historical analyses using this type of data and the future design of radio-telemetry studies.

Spatial ecology of a small arboreal ambush predator, Trimeresurus macrops Kramer, 1977, in Northeast Thailand

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Strine ◽  
Inês Silva ◽  
Curt H. Barnes ◽  
Benjamin M. Marshall ◽  
Taksin Artchawakom ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Ecology ◽  
Radio Telemetry ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Northeast Thailand ◽  
Venomous Snake ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Core Areas ◽  
Activity Areas

Abstract The Big-Eyed Green Pit Viper (Trimeresurus macrops; Kramer, 1977) is a venomous snake species endemic to Southeast Asia. Although we have some knowledge of the systematics and toxicology of T. macrops, little is known about the spatial ecology of this species. From May 2013 to February 2014, we used radio-telemetry to determine home-range sizes of 13 adult female T. macrops inhabiting the Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve in Northeast Thailand. We found that individual home ranges for T. macrops averaged 0.175 ha, with activity areas ranging from 0.112-0.303 ha and core areas ranging from 0.023-0.052 ha. There was little overlap between conspecific tracked females, especially for the most used areas of their home ranges. We find that T. macrops ambushes more in higher humidity and expresses very little diurnal activity. They use the groundstory for ambushing, then retreat over small distances to higher refuge during the day. Future studies should focus on prey abundance, habitat selection, and survival rates.

scholarly journals Size of Territories and Home Ranges of Male Western Yellow-breasted Chats (Icteria virens auricollis) in British Columbia

2012 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 152 ◽  
Author(s):  
René McKibbin ◽  
Christine A. Bishop
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Density Estimation ◽  
Statistical Difference ◽  
Radio Telemetry ◽  
Kernel Density ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Radio Tracking ◽  
Icteria Virens ◽  
Radio Transmitters ◽  
The Mean

During 2005 and 2006, radio-transmitters were fitted to a total of 11 male Western Yellow-breasted Chats, Icteria virens auricollis, in the southern Okanagan River valley, British Columbia, to compare the area used, as detected by radio-telemetry and as defined by mapped observations of breeding males singing and perching. Data were only collected for 5 males. For 2005 and 2006, the 95% kernel density estimation (KDE) revealed that mean area used by male Western Yellow-breasted Chats, as determined by radio-tracking (n = 5), was 1.16 ha, whereas the mean area as defined by observations of breeding males singing and perching was 0.62 ha (no statistical difference). Our hypothesis that the area determined by radio-tracking would be significantly larger than the area defined by observations of males singing and perching was rejected, but the area determined by radio-tracking was almost twice the area defined by observations of breeding males singing and perching.

scholarly journals Movements and use of space by Mangrove Cuckoos (Coccyzus minor) in Florida, USA

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Home Range ◽  
Mangrove Forest ◽  
Site Fidelity ◽  
Radio Telemetry ◽  
The Body ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Southwest Florida ◽  
Radio Transmitters ◽  
History Of ◽  
Initial Description

I used radio-telemetry to track the movements of Mangrove Cuckoos (Coccyzus minor) captured in southwest Florida. Relatively little is known about the natural history of Mangrove Cuckoos, and my goal was to provide an initial description of how individuals use space, with a focus on the size and placement of home ranges. I captured and affixed VHF radio-transmitters to 32 individuals between 2012 and 2015, and obtained a sufficient number of relocations from 16 of them to estimate home-range boundaries and describe patterns of movement. Home-range area varied widely among individuals, but in general, was roughly four times larger than expected based on the body size of Mangrove Cuckoos. The median core area (50% isopleth) of a home range was 42 ha (range: 9 – 91 ha), and the median overall home range (90% isopleth) was 128 ha (range: 28 – 319 ha). The median distance between estimated locations recorded on subsequent days was 298 m (95% CI = 187 m – 409 m), but variation within and among individuals was substantial, and it was not uncommon to relocate individuals >1 km from their location on the previous day. Site fidelity by individual birds was low; although Mangrove Cuckoos were present year-round within the study area, I did not observe any individuals that remained on a single home range throughout the year. Although individual birds showed no evidence of avoiding anthropogenic edges, they did not incorporate developed areas into their daily movements and home ranges consisted almost entirely of mangrove forest. The persistence of the species in the study area depended on a network of conserved lands – mostly public, but some privately conserved land as well – because large patches of mangrove forest did not occur on tracts left unprotected from development.

scholarly journals Effects of livestock on guanaco Lama guanicoe density, movements and habitat selection in a forest–grassland mosaic in Tierra del Fuego, Chile

Oryx ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio A. Moraga ◽  
Martín C. Funes ◽  
J. Cristóbal Pizarro ◽  
Cristóbal Briceño ◽  
Andrés J. Novaro
Keyword(s):  
Forest Regeneration ◽  
Spatial Ecology ◽  
Radio Telemetry ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
Tierra Del Fuego ◽  
Lama Guanicoe ◽  
Livestock Density ◽  
Commercial Logging ◽  
Logged Forest ◽  
The Impact

AbstractLocally abundant ungulates often come into conflict with human activities. After a population collapse that reached its nadir in the 1970s, the guanaco Lama guanicoe population in Tierra del Fuego, Chile, recovered and is now in conflict with sheep ranching and commercial logging. We studied the effects of livestock density and environmental factors on guanaco abundance and spatial ecology, using seasonal counts and radio-telemetry in a private protected area (Karukinka) and neighbouring ranches in a forest–grassland mosaic in Tierra del Fuego. Guanaco density was highest in low-elevation areas with more grassland cover and little snow accumulation in winter. In low-elevation areas, guanaco density decreased with increasing livestock density. Radio-tracked guanacos exhibited a partial migration pattern: two individuals migrated seasonally, selecting grasslands and avoiding forests mainly in summer, whereas six sedentary individuals used habitats according to their availability. Migratory guanacos spent the summer in Karukinka and winter on nearby ranches. High sheep densities and poor range condition on the ranches reduce key forage resources available to guanacos and may promote use of forests by guanacos, affecting forest regeneration and increasing conflict with logging. Current guanaco harvest by loggers may fail to reduce the impact of guanacos on logged-forest regeneration if guanaco spatial ecology and sheep management are not considered. Our results provide insight into the interactions among guanacos, forests and livestock ranching, and may be used to reduce conflicts and guide conservation in the Fuegian ecosystem.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document