Welcome to Movebank's data repository!
Through this repository, Movebank allows users to publish animal tracking datasets that have been uploaded to Movebank (www.movebank.org). Published datasets have gone through a submission and review process, and are typically associated with a written study published in an academic journal. All animal tracking data in this repository are available to the public.
We invite you to read more about the repository and browse the datasets.
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Recent Publications
Data package
Data from: The owl gull: exclusively nocturnal foraging by the Swallow-tailed Gull Creagrus furcatus in Galápagos
(2025-03-12) Cruz, Sebastian; Halpin, Luke R.; Proaño, Carolina B.; Anderson, David J.; Wikelski, Martin
Colony-based observations indicate that Swallow-tailed Gulls Creagrus furcatus go to sea only at night. Here, we use GPS tracking technology to reveal the species' exclusively nocturnal foraging behavior at four colonies in the Galápagos Islands. All nocturnal trips proved to be foraging effort in pelagic waters 19-103 km from nests during breeding. While at sea, individuals spent approximately one-quarter of their time commuting, with half of the time dedicated to area-restricted search behavior. Three years of data from one colony indicate spatial fidelity to a general foraging area. Our research directly confirms that Swallow-tailed Gulls are the only obligate nocturnal foragers among Laridae and contributes to our understanding of nocturnal foraging strategies in tropical seabirds.
Moveapps Workflow
MoveApps Workflow: Roost and Foraging Site Extraction
(2022-11-14) Kölzsch, Andrea; Kölzsch, Andrea; Federal German Ministry of Education and Research
Extract roosts (stationary during night) or foraging sites (stationary during day) from movement tracks. Steps: selects locations on ground (low speed) and at night/day, extract sites where animals stay in defined radius for defined min. duration
Data package
Data from: Landscape heterogeneity and novelty drive avian oscillatory flight behaviour during forebrain wulst-dependent visual map learning
(2025-02-20) Cioccarelli, Sara; Giunchi, Dimitri; Casini, Giovanni; Pollonara, Enrica; Bingman, Verner P.; Gagliardo, Anna
Homing pigeons are able to navigate within a familiar area by relying on familiar visual landmarks and landscape features. Learning and recalling familiar landscape cues, which compose the visual, familiar landmark-based map, are necessarily processed by visual processing regions of the forebrain, such as the visual Wulst. Recent GPS tracking studies revealed persistent oscillatory flight behaviour at a scale of high-spatial resolution in Wulst- and hippocampal-lesioned pigeons, compared to intact pigeons in which this movement pattern seems to disappear after repeated releases. However, the factors that lead to this characteristic flight pattern are still poorly understood. By analysing the flight patterns of intact and Wulst-lesioned pigeons released offshore we found that landscape complexity is an important factor determining the display of oscillatory flight behaviour in both control and Wulst-lesioned pigeons; birds flying over the sea display little osciallatory flight behaviour, but once flying over land, oscillatory flight behaviour becomes evident. The analysis of the tracks of pigeons repeatedly released over both unfamiliar and familiar areas revealed that in intact birds the extent of oscillatory flight behaviour was reduced with increasing familiarity with the landscape. By contrast, Wulst-lesioned pigeons displayed persistent oscillatory flight behaviour regardless of the level of familiarity with the landscape. These findings suggest that the oscillatory flight behaviour contributes to the learning and integration of visual landscape information during the acquisition of a familiar landmark-based map. We discuss the possible role of the visual Wulst in familiar landmark-based navigation, proposing a spatial-cognitive brain network model in which both the visual Wulst and hippocampal formation play prominent roles.
Data package
Data from: Study "African elephants in Etosha National Park (data from Tsalyuk et al. 2018)"
(2025-02-19) Getz, Wayne M.; Kilian, Werner; Zidon, Royi; Tsalyuk, Miriam
The relationship between resource availability and wildlife movement patterns is pivotal to understanding species behavior and ecology. Movement response to landscape variables occurs at multiple temporal scales, from sub-diurnal to multiannual. Additionally, individuals may respond to both current and past conditions of resource availability. In this paper, we examine the temporal scale and variation of current and past resource variables that affect movement patterns of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) using sub-hourly movement data from GPS-GSM collared elephants in Etosha National Park, Namibia. We created detailed satellite-based spatiotemporal maps of vegetation biomass, as well as distance from surface water, road and fence. We used step selection functions to measure the relative importance of these landscape variables in determining elephants’ local movement patterns. We also examined how elephants respond to information, in locations they have previously visited, on productivity integrated over different temporal scales: from current to historical conditions. Our results demonstrate that elephants choose patches with higher than average annual productivity and grass biomass, but lower tree biomass. Elephants also prefer to walk close to water, roads, and fences. These preferences vary with time of day and with season, thereby providing insights into diurnal and seasonal behavioral patterns and the ecological importance of the landscape variables examined. We also discovered that elephants respond more strongly to long-term patterns of productivity than to immediate forage conditions, in familiar locations. Our results illustrate how animals with high cognitive capacity and spatial memory integrate long-term information on landscape conditions. We illuminate the importance of long-term high temporal resolution satellite imagery to understanding the relationship between movement patterns and landscape structure.
Data package
Data from: Study "Audubon Canyon Ranch egret telemetry project"
(2025-02-17) Jennings, Scott; Lumpkin, David; Warnock, Nils; Condeso, Emiko
Movement by animals to obtain resources and avoid predation often depends on natural cycles, and human alteration of the landscape may disrupt or enhance the utility of different habitats or resources to animals through the phases of these cycles. We studied habitat selection by GPS/accelerometer-tagged great egrets (Ardea alba) foraging in areas with shellfish aquaculture infrastructure and adjacent natural wetlands, while accounting for tide-based changes in water depth. We used integrated step selection analysis to test the prediction that egrets would express stronger selection for natural wetlands (eelgrass, tidal marsh, and other tidal wetlands) than for shellfish aquaculture areas. We also evaluated differences in foraging behavior among shellfish aquaculture areas and natural wetlands by comparing speed travelled (estimated from distance between GPS locations) and energy expended (Overall Dynamic Body Acceleration) while foraging. We found evidence for stronger overall habitat selection for eelgrass than for shellfish aquaculture areas, with results conditional on water depth: egrets used shellfish aquaculture areas, but only within a much narrower range of water depths than they used eelgrass and other natural wetlands. We found only slight differences in our metrics of foraging behavior among shellfish aquaculture areas and natural wetlands. Our results suggest that although great egrets appear to perceive or experience shellfish aquaculture areas as suitable foraging habitat during some conditions, those areas provide less foraging opportunity throughout tidal cycles than natural wetlands. Thus, expanding the footprint of shellfish aquaculture into additional intertidal areas may reduce foraging opportunities for great egrets across the range of tidal cycles. Over longer time scales, the ways in which natural wetlands and shellfish aquaculture areas adapt to rising sea levels (either through passive processes or active management) may change the ratios of these wetland types and consequently change the overall value of Tomales Bay to foraging great egrets.