Data packages
Permanent URI for this collection
Data packages
Browse
Recent Publications
Now showing 1 - 5 of 379
- Data packageData from: Study "Bobcat spatial ecology study in the Olympic Peninsula, Washington"(2025-05-15) Serieys, Laurel E.K.; Wong, Wai-MingForests are critical for sustaining biodiversity and provide vital ecosystem services globally, including renewable timber sources, nutrient flow, climate regulation, water supply and purification, and carbon sequestration. Human-caused forest loss, fragmentation, and degradation have resulted in biodiversity declines globally; unsustainable timber-logging is one of the largest drivers of forest loss and degradation. Harvest-driven shifts in forest structure and composition have considerable implications for wildlife species, with logging activities appearing beneficial for some wildlife species and detrimental to others. Our objective was to determine the effects of logging activities on fine-scale carnivore movement and habitat selection. We generated step selection functions from 1-hour interval spatial data from nine GPS-collared bobcats. Specifically, we examined how different post-harvest forest stands and canopy cover influenced bobcat habitat selection while controlling for other landscape features such as slope and distance to paved roads, logging roads, and streams in the Olympic Peninsula of western Washington, USA. We also tested the percent at which bobcat selection for canopy cover saturates. We found that bobcats avoided the young forest stands less than 5 years of age and older and mature forest stands exceeding 40 years of age. Bobcats selected for the forest age class spanning 6–15 years and gentler slopes. We also found that bobcat selection for canopy cover peaked at 66 % canopy cover. Our findings highlight the importance of evaluating different forms of human modification on species' habitat selection to inform how human resource extraction impacts species.
- Data packageData from: Study "Caracal movement ecology study in Cape Town, South Africa"(2025-05-01) Serieys, Laurel E.K.; Bishop, Jacqueline M.Human activities increasingly challenge wild animal populations by disrupting ecological connectivity and population persistence. Yet, human-modified habitats can provide resources, resulting in selection of disturbed areas by generalist species. To investigate spatial and temporal responses of a generalist carnivore to human disturbance, we investigated habitat selection and diel activity patterns in caracals (Caracal caracal). We GPS-collared 25 adults and subadults in urban and wildland-dominated subregions in Cape Town, South Africa. Selection responses for landscape variables were dependent on subregion, animal age class, and diel period. Contrary to expectations, caracals did not become more nocturnal in urban areas. Caracals increased their selection for proximity to urban areas as the proportion of urban area increased. Differences in habitat selection between urban and wildland caracals suggest that individuals of this generalist species exhibit high behavioral flexibility in response to anthropogenic disturbances that emerge as a function of habitat context.
- Data packageData 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, MartinColony-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.
- Data packageData 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, AnnaHoming 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 packageData 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, MiriamThe 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.