An official website of the United States government
Abstract Projects focused on movement behaviour and home range are commonplace, but beyond a focus on choosing appropriate research questions, there are no clear guidelines for such studies. Without these guidelines, designing an animal tracking study to produce reliable estimates of space‐use and movement properties (necessary to answer basic movement ecology questions), is often done in an ad hoc manner.We developed ‘movedesign’, a user‐friendly Shiny application, which can be utilized to investigate the precision of three estimates regularly reported in movement and spatial ecology studies: home range area, speed and distance travelled. Conceptually similar to statistical power analysis, this application enables users to assess the degree of estimate precision that may be achieved with a given sampling design; that is, the choices regarding data resolution (sampling interval) and battery life (sampling duration).Leveraging the ‘ctmm’Rpackage, we utilize two methods proven to handle many common biases in animal movement datasets: autocorrelated kernel density estimators (AKDEs) and continuous‐time speed and distance (CTSD) estimators. Longer sampling durations are required to reliably estimate home range areas via the detection of a sufficient number of home range crossings. In contrast, speed and distance estimation requires a sampling interval short enough to ensure that a statistically significant signature of the animal's velocity remains in the data.This application addresses key challenges faced by researchers when designing tracking studies, including the trade‐off between long battery life and high resolution of GPS locations collected by the devices, which may result in a compromise between reliably estimating home range or speed and distance. ‘movedesign’ has broad applications for researchers and decision‐makers, supporting them to focus efforts and resources in achieving the optimal sampling design strategy for their research questions, prioritizing the correct deployment decisions for insightful and reliable outputs, while understanding the trade‐off associated with these choices.
more »
« less
The Importance of Representative Sampling for Home Range Estimation in Field Primatology
Abstract Understanding the amount of space required by animals to fulfill their biological needs is essential for comprehending their behavior, their ecological role within their community, and for effective conservation planning and resource management. The space-use patterns of habituated primates often are studied by using handheld GPS devices, which provide detailed movement information that can link patterns of ranging and space-use to the behavioral decisions that generate these patterns. However, these data may not accurately represent an animal’s total movements, posing challenges when the desired inference is at the home range scale. To address this problem, we used a 13-year dataset from 11 groups of white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus imitator) to examine the impact of sampling elements, such as sample size, regularity, and temporal coverage, on home range estimation accuracy. We found that accurate home range estimation is feasible with relatively small absolute sample sizes and irregular sampling, as long as the data are collected over extended time periods. Also, concentrated sampling can lead to bias and overconfidence due to uncaptured variations in space use and underlying movement behaviors. Sampling protocols relying on handheld GPS for home range estimation are improved by maximizing independent location data distributed across time periods much longer than the target species’ home range crossing timescale.
more »
« less
- PAR ID:
- 10471969
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer Science + Business Media
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- International Journal of Primatology
- Volume:
- 45
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0164-0291
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 213-245
- Size(s):
- p. 213-245
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
In Subarctic and Arctic environments, daily patterns of activity and space-use are strongly influenced by interplay between seasonal abiotic factors and the corresponding responses of the biotic environment. Here we combined accelerometry with GPS telemetry of Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis (Kerr, 1792), n=12) in northern Alaska to test the hypotheses that lynx activity would peak during twilight throughout the year, coinciding with activity of their preferred prey, and that individuals with larger home ranges would have greater spatial displacement and expend more energy on movement. Lynx activity occurred throughout the 24h day and peaked during twilight, but variation among individuals was high and diel rhythms were sometimes only detectable using the finer resolution accelerometer data. Surprisingly, home range size was not correlated with movement costs estimated via acceleration, but step length and acceleration were correlated in a positive curvilinear fashion. However, step length was sometimes disproportionately lower than predicted by acceleration. Such intervals of high activity with low spatial displacement were often followed by periods of rest, suggesting they may be indicative of hunting in a restricted patch of habitat. We conclude that accelerometers can provide additional information to supplement GPS data, providing a more complete picture of animal behavior.more » « less
-
Abstract BackgroundInteraction through movement can be used as a marker to understand and model interspecific and intraspecific species dynamics, and the collective behavior of animals sharing the same space. This research leverages the time-geography framework, commonly used in human movement research, to explore the dynamic patterns of interaction between Indochinese tigers (Panthera tigris corbeti) in the western forest complex (WEFCOM) in Thailand. MethodsWe propose and assess ORTEGA, a time-geographic interaction analysis method, to trace spatio-temporal interactions patterns and home range shifts among tigers. Using unique GPS tracking data of tigers in WEFCOM collected over multiple years, concurrent and delayed interaction patterns of tigers are investigated. The outcomes are compared for intraspecific tiger interaction across different genders, relationships, and life stages. Additionally, the performance of ORTEGA is compared to a commonly used proximity-based approach. ResultsAmong the 67 tracked tigers, 42 show concurrent interactions at shared boundaries. Further investigation of five tigers with overlapping home ranges (two adult females, a male, and two young male tigers) suggests that the mother tiger and her two young mostly stay together before their dispersal but interact less post-dispersal. The male tiger increases encounters with the mother tiger while her young shift their home ranges. On another timeline, the neighbor female tiger mostly avoids the mother tiger. Through these home range dynamics and interaction patterns, we identify four types of interaction among these tigers: following, encounter, latency, and avoidance. Compared to the proximity-based approach, ORTEGA demonstrates better detects concurrent mother–young interactions during pre-dispersal, while the proximity-based approach misses many interactions among the dyads. With larger spatial buffers and temporal windows, the proximity-based approach detects more encounters but may overestimate the duration of interaction. ConclusionsThis research demonstrates the applicability and merits of ORTEGA as a time-geographic based approach to animal movement interaction analysis. We show time geography can develop valuable, data-driven insights about animal behavior and interactions. ORTEGA effectively traces frequent encounters and temporally delayed interactions between animals, without relying on specific spatial and temporal buffers. Future research should integrate contextual and behavioral information to better identify and characterize the nature of species interaction.more » « less
-
Abstract Ecologists have long been interested in linking individual behaviour with higher level processes. For motile species, this ‘upscaling’ is governed by how well any given movement strategy maximizes encounters with positive factors and minimizes encounters with negative factors. Despite the importance of encounter events for a broad range of ecological processes, encounter theory has not kept pace with developments in animal tracking or movement modelling. Furthermore, existing work has focused primarily on the relationship between animal movement and encounterrateswhile the relationship between individual movement and the spatiallocationsof encounter events in the environment has remained conspicuously understudied.Here, we bridge this gap by introducing a method for describing the long‐term encounter location probabilities for movement within home ranges, termed the conditional distribution of encounters (CDE). We then derive this distribution, as well as confidence intervals, implement its statistical estimator into open‐source software and demonstrate the broad ecological relevance of this distribution.We first use simulated data to show how our estimator provides asymptotically consistent estimates. We then demonstrate the general utility of this method for three simulation‐based scenarios that occur routinely in biological systems: (a) a population of individuals with home ranges that overlap with neighbours; (b) a pair of individuals with a hard territorial border between their home ranges; and (c) a predator with a large home range that encompassed the home ranges of multiple prey individuals. Using GPS data from white‐faced capuchinsCebus capucinus, tracked on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, and sleepy lizardsTiliqua rugosa,tracked in Bundey, South Australia, we then show how the CDE can be used to estimate the locations of territorial borders, identify key resources, quantify the potential for competitive or predatory interactions and/or identify any changes in behaviour that directly result from location‐specific encounter probability.The CDE enables researchers to better understand the dynamics of populations of interacting individuals. Notably, the general estimation framework developed in this work builds straightforwardly off of home range estimation and requires no specialized data collection protocols. This method is now openly available via thectmm Rpackage.more » « less
-
Root, Karen (Ed.)Determining space use for species is fundamental to understanding their ecology, and tracking animals can reveal insights into their spatial ecology on home ranges and territories. Recent technological advances have led to GPS-tracking devices light enough for birds as small as ~30 g, creating novel opportunities to remotely monitor fine-scale movements and space use for these smaller species. We tested whether miniaturized GPS tags can allow us to understand space use of migratory birds away from their capture sites and sought to understand both pre-breeding space use as well as territory and habitat use on the breeding grounds. We used GPS tags to characterize home ranges on the breeding grounds for a migratory songbird with limited available breeding information, the Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla). Using GPS points from 23 individuals across 26 tags (three birds tagged twice), we found home ranges in Alaska and British Columbia were on average 44.1 ha (95% kernel density estimate). In addition, estimates of territory sizes based on field observations (mean 2.1 ha, 95% minimum convex polygon [MCP]) were three times smaller than 95% MCPs created using GPS tags (mean 6.5 ha). Home ranges included a variety of land cover classes, with shrubland particularly dominant (64–100% of home range cover for all but one bird). Three birds tracked twice returned to the same breeding area each year, supporting high breeding site fidelity for this species. We found reverse spring migration for five birds that flew up to 154 km past breeding destinations before returning. GPS-tracking technology allowed for critical ecological insights into this migratory species that breeds in very remote locations.more » « less
