Data from: Study "GPS tracking of Texas Tortoises in South Texas USA (Guerra et al. 2025)"
Data from: Study "GPS tracking of Texas Tortoises in South Texas USA (Guerra et al. 2025)"
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Date
2025-06-09
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Citation
Guerra DA, Veech JA, Esque TC, Davis DR. 2025. Data from: Study "GPS tracking of Texas Tortoises in South Texas USA (Guerra et al. 2025)". Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.655Abstract
Context: The relationship between slope and terrestrial animal locomotion is key to landscape ecology but underexplored across species. This is partly due to a lack of scalable methodology that applies to a diversity of wildlife.
Objectives: This study investigates the slope-speed relationship for two species, Texas tortoise (Gopherus berlandieri) and pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), through the combined application of remote sensing, GPS tracking, behavior models, and parametric distribution. While using readily available Digital Elevation Models (DEM) for pronghorn, we explore the use of very high-resolution lidar Digital Terrain Models (DTM) from Unoccupied Aerial Systems (UAS) to characterize tortoise movements at micro-scales.
Methods: After classifying animal behavior with GPS tracking data and Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), we analyzed the relationship between the speed of the animals and the slope of the terrain using a 30-m DEM for pronghorn, and a fine-scale UAS DTM for Texas tortoise, and three nonlinear models: Laplace, Gauss, and Lorentz.
Results: High-resolution DTM, coupled with GPS tracking, accurately models the relationship of speed and slope at a micro-scale, while a DEM is suitable for a larger scale. Laplace models best predicted the speed of both the Texas tortoise and pronghorn. Models showed tortoises, which are not known for rapid and agile movement like the pronghorn, have a broader tolerance for varying slopes at a fine scale.
Conclusions: These findings enhance understanding of species-specific movement offering valuable insights for habitat management and conservation tailored to species’ behaviors and capabilities.
Keywords
Gopherus berlandieri, animal tracking, GPS, GPS logger, reptiles, resource selection, Texas Tortoise
DOIs of related Publications
BibTex
@misc{001/1_655,
title = {Data from: Study "GPS tracking of Texas Tortoises in South Texas USA (Guerra et al. 2025)"},
author = {Guerra, DA and Veech, JA and Esque, TC and Davis, DR},
year = {2025},
URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.655},
doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.655},
publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}RIS
TY - DATA ID - doi:10.5441/001/1.655 T1 - Data from: Study "GPS tracking of Texas Tortoises in South Texas USA (Guerra et al. 2025)" AU - Guerra, Daniel A. AU - Veech, Joseph A. AU - Esque, Todd C. AU - Davis, Drew R. Y1 - 2025/06/09 KW - Gopherus berlandieri KW - animal movement KW - animal tracking KW - GPS KW - GPS logger KW - reptiles KW - resource selection KW - Texas Tortoise KW - Gopherus berlandieri PB - Movebank data repository UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.655 DO - doi:10.5441/001/1.655 ER -