Landscapes, habitat, and migratory behaviour: what drives the summer movements of a Northern viper?

IF 3.9 1区 生物学 Q2 ECOLOGY
Chloe R Howarth, Christine A Bishop, Karl W Larsen
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Studies on movement behaviour and habitat use are central to understanding the ecology of migratory animals and play an important role in the conservation and management of these species. However, individuals' spatial ecology can vary substantially, and failing to understand differences within or between populations may be problematic. In British Columbia, Canada, where Western Rattlesnakes reach their northern range limit, individuals undertake seasonal migrations between communal hibernacula and summer hunting grounds. Western Rattlesnakes commonly are associated with low-elevation grasslands and open Ponderosa pine habitats; however, recent work has shown that some animals undertake longer-distance migrations into higher-elevation Douglas-fir forests.

Methods: To further investigate multi-phenotypic migratory tactics and habitat use, we compiled all available raw data from radio-telemetry studies conducted on adult males (n = 139) between 2005 and 2019 from nine study sites across the Canadian range of Western Rattlesnakes. We quantify variation in migration distance, timing, altitudinal migration, home range sizes, and destination habitats used across our sample, and we use a linear mixed-modelling approach to assess potential drivers of long-distance migration.

Results: On average, snakes migrated 1364 ± 781 m (ranging from 105 m to 3832 m) from their overwintering dens. Migratory distance differed significantly between sites and was higher among individuals using forests as their migratory destination, yet within-habitat variation was high, suggesting a continuum of migratory phenotypes. Migratory distance was best predicted by two top models: terrain and combined effects (including terrain, physiology, and vegetation factors). Even these top-performing models, however, left much of the variation in migratory distance unexplained (rs = 0.65 and 0.64 respectively based on k-fold cross-validation where k = 10), suggesting other factors not measured here, such as genetics and prey quality, may also be contributing.

Conclusions: Overall, this study provides critical knowledge on the movement ecology of a far-ranging reptile with implications for the conservation and management of the species in the far north where seasonal movements are commonplace. Our results shed light on some drivers of multi-phenotypic migration in a taxonomic group where this phenomenon has largely been unstudied, while contributing more broadly to a growing body of literature on migratory variation in animals.

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景观、栖息地和迁徙行为:是什么驱动了北方蝰蛇的夏季迁徙?
背景:研究迁徙动物的运动行为和栖息地利用是了解迁徙动物生态学的核心,在迁徙动物的保护和管理中起着重要作用。然而,个体的空间生态可能有很大的差异,不能理解种群内部或种群之间的差异可能是有问题的。在加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省,西部响尾蛇到达其北部活动范围的极限,个体在公共冬眠地和夏季狩猎场之间进行季节性迁徙。西部响尾蛇通常与低海拔草原和开放的黄松栖息地有关;然而,最近的研究表明,一些动物会进行更长距离的迁徙,进入海拔更高的道格拉斯冷杉林。方法:为了进一步研究多表型迁徙策略和栖息地利用,我们收集了2005年至2019年期间在加拿大西部响尾蛇范围内的9个研究地点对成年雄性(n = 139)进行的无线电遥测研究的所有可用原始数据。我们量化了样本中迁移距离、时间、垂直迁移、家园范围大小和目的地栖息地的变化,并使用线性混合建模方法来评估长距离迁移的潜在驱动因素。结果:蛇的平均迁移距离为1364±781 m (105 ~ 3832 m)。迁徙距离在不同地点之间存在显著差异,以森林为迁徙目的地的个体的迁徙距离更高,但栖息地内的差异很大,表明迁徙表型是连续的。地形和综合效应(包括地形、生理和植被因子)两个顶级模型对迁徙距离的预测效果最好。然而,即使是这些表现最好的模型,也无法解释迁移距离的大部分变化(基于k-fold交叉验证,rs分别为0.65和0.64,其中k = 10),这表明其他未测量的因素,如遗传和猎物质量,也可能起作用。结论:总的来说,这项研究提供了一种远程爬行动物的运动生态学的关键知识,对远北地区的物种保护和管理具有重要意义,因为季节性运动是司空见惯的。我们的研究结果揭示了一个分类群体中多表型迁移的一些驱动因素,而这种现象在很大程度上尚未得到研究,同时也为越来越多的关于动物迁移变异的文献做出了更广泛的贡献。
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来源期刊
Movement Ecology
Movement Ecology Agricultural and Biological Sciences-Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
CiteScore
6.60
自引率
4.90%
发文量
47
审稿时长
23 weeks
期刊介绍: Movement Ecology is an open-access interdisciplinary journal publishing novel insights from empirical and theoretical approaches into the ecology of movement of the whole organism - either animals, plants or microorganisms - as the central theme. We welcome manuscripts on any taxa and any movement phenomena (e.g. foraging, dispersal and seasonal migration) addressing important research questions on the patterns, mechanisms, causes and consequences of organismal movement. Manuscripts will be rigorously peer-reviewed to ensure novelty and high quality.
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