Pre-breeding prospecting behaviour of snowy owls (data from Therrien et al. 2015)-reference-data

Therrien J, Pinaud D, Gauthier G, Lecomte N, Bildstein KL, Bety J. 2015. Pre-breeding prospecting behaviour of snowy owls (data from Therrien et al. 2015)-reference-data. Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.32rf091b/2

Abstract

Background: Tracking individual animals using satellite telemetry has improved our understanding of animal movements considerably. Nonetheless, thorough statistical treatment of Argos datasets is often jeopardized by their coarse temporal resolution. State-space modelling can circumvent some of the inherent limitations of Argos datasets, such as the limited temporal resolution of locations and the lack of information pertaining to the behavioural state of the tracked individuals at each location. We coupled state-space modelling with environmental characterisation of modelled locations on a 3-year Argos dataset of 9 breeding snowy owls to assess whether searching behaviour for breeding sites was affected by snow cover and depth in an arctic predator that shows a lack of breeding site fidelity. Results: The state-space modelling approach allowed the discrimination of two behavioural states (searching and moving) during pre-breeding movements. Tracked snowy owls constantly switched from moving to searching behaviour during pre-breeding movements from mid-March to early June. Searching events were more likely where snow cover and depth was low. This suggests that snowy owls adapt their searching effort to environmental conditions encountered along their path. Conclusions: This modelling technique increases our understanding of movement ecology and behavioural decisions of individual animals both locally and globally according to environmental variables.

Keywords

animal tracking, Argos, Bubo scandiacus, dispersal, Env-DATA, Movebank, NCEP NARR, pre-breeding movements, snow, satellite telemetry, snowy owl, state-space model

DOIs of related Publications

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-015-0028-7

URI

https://datarepository.movebank.org/handle/10255/move.426

BibTex

@misc{001/1_32rf091b/2,
  title = {Pre-breeding prospecting behaviour of snowy owls (data from Therrien et al. 2015)-reference-data},
  author = {Therrien, J and Pinaud, D and Gauthier, G and Lecomte, N and Bildstein, KL and Bety, J},
  year = {2015},
  URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.32rf091b/2},
  doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.32rf091b/2},
  publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
ID  - doi:10.5441/001/1.32rf091b/2
T1  - Pre-breeding prospecting behaviour of snowy owls (data from Therrien et al. 2015)-reference-data
AU  - Therrien, Jean-François
AU  - Pinaud, David
AU  - Gauthier, Gilles
AU  - Lecomte, Nicolas
AU  - Bildstein, Keith L.
AU  - Bety, Joël
Y1  - 2015/02/27
KW  - animal tracking
KW  - Argos
KW  - Bubo scandiacus
KW  - dispersal
KW  - Env-DATA
KW  - Movebank
KW  - NCEP NARR
KW  - pre-breeding movements
KW  - snow
KW  - satellite telemetry
KW  - snowy owl
KW  - state-space model
KW  - Bubo scandiacus
PB  - Movebank data repository
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.32rf091b/2
DO  - doi:10.5441/001/1.32rf091b/2
ER  -

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