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- Data packageData from: More grazing, more damage? Assessed yield loss on agricultural grassland relates non-linearly to goose grazing pressure(2023-11-29) Buitendijk, Nelleke H.; de Jager, Monique; Kruckenberg, Helmut; Kölzsch, Andrea; Moonen, Sander; Müskens, Gerhard J.D.M.; Nolet, Bart A.1. In recent decades, conflict between geese and agriculture has increased. Management practices to limit this conflict include concentrating geese in protected areas, derogation shooting or population reduction. To justify such management, we need to understand their effects on goose-related damages, which requires an understanding of how yield loss is influenced by goose abundance and species interactions. 2. We combined data from monthly goose counts and GPS-tracked geese to estimate grazing pressures by barnacle, white-fronted and greylag geese on agricultural grassland in Fryslân, the Netherlands. Using linear mixed models, we related this to damages assessed by professional inspectors. 3. Our results show a positive nonlinear relationship between yield loss and barnacle goose grazing pressure, where assessed damage increases with a decelerating rate as grazing pressure increases. For white-fronted geese, we find a negative relationship, while for greylag geese both positive and negative relationships occur. For each species, the relationship is influenced by the abundance of the other two. 4. For barnacle geese, the relationship can be explained by selection of fields offering the best balance between food intake and energy expenditure, and by grass regrowth, with highest grazing pressures occurring over a longer time period. The results for the other species are likely due to spatial and temporal differences in foraging preferences compared to barnacle geese, where larger species avoid areas with highest damages. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that decreasing herbivore abundance may not translate directly to decreased yield loss, and management tools such as population reduction or derogation shooting should be used with care. Management aimed at concentrating geese in refuges could help to alleviate farmer–goose conflict, although further studies are required to determine if it would lead to damage reduction. We also find that not all species contribute equally to agricultural damage; care should be taken to ensure wildlife management targets the right species.
- Data packageData from: Early life and acquired experiences interact in shaping migratory and flight behaviors(2023-11-21) Efrat, Ron; Hatzofe, Ohad; Mueller, Thomas; Sapir, Nir; Berger-Tal, OdedTwo types of experience affect animals' behavioral proficiencies and accordingly their fitness: early-life experience–an animal’s environment during its early development, and acquired experience–the repeated practice of a specific task. Yet, how these two experience types and their interactions affect different proficiencies is still an open question. Here, we study the interactions between these two types of experience during migration, a critical and challenging period. We do so by comparing migratory proficiencies between birds with different early-life experiences, and explain these differences by testing fine-scale flight mechanisms. We used data collected by GPS transmitters during autumn migrations of 65 individuals to study the flight proficiencies of two groups of Egyptian vultures (Neophron percnopterus), a long-distance, soaring raptor. The two groups differed greatly in their early-life experience, one group being captive-bred and the other wild-hatched. Both groups improved their migratory performance with acquired experience, exhibiting shorter migration times, longer daily progress, and improved flight skills, specifically more efficient soaring-gliding behavior. The observed improvements were mostly apparent for captive-bred vultures which were the least efficient during their first migration but were able to catch up in their migratory performance already in the second migration. Thus, we show how the strong negative effects of early-life experience were offset by acquired experience. Our findings uncover how the interaction between early-life and acquired experiences may shape animals' proficiencies and shed new light on the ontogeny of animal migration, suggesting possible effects of sensitive periods of learning on the acquisition of migratory skills.
- Data packageData from: Home range size of domestic cats in Spain(2023-10-25) Palomares, Francisco; Sanglas, Ariadna[EN] This dataset describes the home range size of 64 domestic cats living in different sites in Spain during the years 2021, 2022 and 2023. Cats were tracked with three different types of devices during periods ranging from 8 and 82 days, and they were owned cats living associated with a house (50 individuals), colony unattended cats (13 individuals), and one isolated unattended cats living in a natural area. Four estimates of home range size are presented: Minimum convex polygon method using 100% and 95% of valid fixes, and kernel estimates using 95% and 50% of valid fixes. Additional information on the number of tracking days, date of tracking, number of fixes, or details on cat individuals are also provided. [ES] Este conjunto de datos describe el tamaño del área de campeo de 64 gatos domésticos que vivieron en diferentes lugares de España durante los años 2021, 2022 y 2023. Los gatos fueron rastreados con tres tipos diferentes de dispositivos durante períodos que oscilaron entre 8 y 82 días, y eran gatos con dueño, viviendo asociado a una casa (50 individuos), de una colonia de gatos desatendida (13 individuos) y un gato desatendido que vivía en un área natural. Se presentan cuatro estimas del tamaño del área de campeo: método del polígono convexo mínimo utilizando el 100 % y el 95 % de las localizaciones válidas, y el método de kernel usando el 95% y el 50 % de las localizaciones válidas. También se proporciona información adicional sobre el número de días de seguimiento, las fechas de seguimiento, el número de localizaciones o detalles sobre los gatos.
- Data packageData from: Multi-scale movement syndromes for comparative analyses of animal movement patterns(2023-10-18) Kays, Roland; Hirsch, Ben T.; Caillaud, Damien; Mares, Rafael; Alavi, Shauhin; Havmøller, Rasmus Worsøe; Crofoot, Margaret C.Background: Animal movement is a behavioral trait shaped by the need to find food and suitable habitat, avoid predators, and reproduce. Using high-resolution tracking data, it is possible to describe movement in greater detail than ever before, which has led to many discoveries about the behavioral strategies of particular species. Recently, enough data been become available to enable a comparative approach, which has the potential to uncover general causes and consequences of variation in movement patterns, but which must be scale specific. Methods: Here we introduce a new multi-scale movement syndrome (MSMS) framework for describing and comparing animal movements and use it to explore the behavior of four sympatric mammals. MSMS incorporates four hierarchical scales of animal movement: (1) fine-scale movement steps which accumulate into (2) daily paths which then, over weeks or months, form a (3) life-history phase. Finally, (4) the lifetime track of an individual consists of multiple life-history phases connected by dispersal or migration events. We suggest a series of metrics to describe patterns of movement at each of these scales and use the first three scales of this framework to compare the movement of 46 animals from four frugivorous mammal species. Results: While subtle differences exist between the four species in their step-level movements, they cluster into three distinct movement syndromes in both path- and life-history phase level analyses. Differences in feeding ecology were a better predictor of movement patterns than a species’ locomotory or sensory adaptations. Conclusions: Given the role these species play as seed dispersers, these movement syndromes could have important ecosystem implications by affecting the pattern of seed deposition. This multiscale approach provides a hierarchical framework for comparing animal movement for addressing ecological and evolutionary questions. It parallels scales of analyses for resource selection functions, offering the potential to connect movement process with emergent patterns of space use.
- Data packageData from: Influence of visual perception on movement decisions by an ungulate prey species(2023-10-16) Newman, Blaise A.; Dyal, Jordan R.; Miller, Karl V.; Cherry, Michael J.; D'Angelo, Gino J.Visual perception is dynamic and depends on physiological properties of a species’ visual system and physical characteristics of the environment. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are most sensitive to short- and mid-wavelength light (e.g. blue and green). Wavelength enrichment varies spatially and temporally across the landscape. We assessed how the visual perception of deer influences their movement decisions. From August to September 2019, we recorded 10-min locations from 15 GPS-collared adult male deer in Central Florida. We used Hidden-Markov models to identify periods of movement by deer and subset these data into three time periods based on temporal changes in light environments. We modeled resource selection during movement using path-selection functions and simulated 10 available paths for every path used. We developed five a priori models and used 10-fold cross validation to assess our top model's performance for each time period. During the day, deer selected to move through woodland shade, avoided forest shade, and neither selected nor avoided small gaps. At twilight, deer avoided wetlands as cloud cover increased but neither selected nor avoided other cover types. Visual cues and signals are likely more conspicuous to deer in short-wavelength-enriched woodland shade during the day, while at twilight in long-wavelength-enriched wetlands during cloud cover, visual cues are likely less conspicuous. The nocturnal light environment did not influence resource selection and likely has little effect on deer movements because it's relatively homogenous. Our findings suggest visual perception relative to light environments is likely an underappreciated driver of behaviors and decision-making by an ungulate prey species.