Taxon:Nasua narica
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Data 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 from: Stink or swim: techniques to meet the challenges for the study and conservation of small critters that hide, swim or climb and may otherwise make themselves unpleasant
2015-04-14, Kays, Roland, Hirsch, Ben T.
NOTE: A corrected version of this dataset is available. See doi:10.5441/001/1.41076dq1 at datarepository.movebank.org/handle/10255/move.461. ABSTRACT: GPS tracking units have limited performance below thick vegetation, despite technological improvements, and will always perform better on animals in or above forest canopy.
Data from: Stink or swim: techniques to meet the challenges for the study and conservation of small critters that hide, swim or climb and may otherwise make themselves unpleasant.
2015-05-25, Kays, Roland, Hirsch, Ben T.
The study of musteloids requires different perspectives and techniques than those needed for most mammals. Musteloids are generally small yet travel long distances and many live or forage underground or under water, limiting the use of telemetry and direct observation. Some are arboreal and nocturnal, facilitating telemetry but limiting observation, trapping, and many non-invasive techniques. Large sexual size dimorphism arguably doubles sample sizes for many research questions. Many musteloids defend themselves by expelling noxious chemicals. This obscure group does not attract funding, even when endangered, further reducing rate of knowledge gain. Nonetheless, passive and active radio frequency identification tags, magnetic-inductance tracking, accelerometers, mini-biologgers and some GPS tags are tiny enough for use with small musteloids. Environmental DNA can document presence of animals rarely seen. These technologies, coupled with creative research design that is well-grounded on the scientific method, form a multi-dimensional approach for advancing our understanding of these charismatic minifauna.