Movement EcologyPub Date : 2025-06-06DOI: 10.1186/s40462-025-00566-1
Levi J Heffelfinger, David G Hewitt, Joshua P Vasquez, Timothy E Fulbright, Randy W DeYoung, Louis A Harveson, Warren C Conway, Shawn S Gray
{"title":"Cropland restricts occurrence and alters spatial ecology near the mule deer geographical range limit.","authors":"Levi J Heffelfinger, David G Hewitt, Joshua P Vasquez, Timothy E Fulbright, Randy W DeYoung, Louis A Harveson, Warren C Conway, Shawn S Gray","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00566-1","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-025-00566-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Habitat fragmentation can influence the spatial ecology of wildlife populations, with downstream effects on population dynamics and sustainability. Row-crop farming is a common anthropogenic landscape alteration, yet the effects on animal movement and space use is understudied in some species. Cropland can benefit wildlife nutritionally but may result in habitat loss because of changes in landscape composition and human disturbance.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We quantified the influence of cropland presence and coverage on mule deer spatial ecology in the southern Great Plains. We GPS-collared 146 adult mule deer in four regions of the Texas Panhandle and monitored movement relative to spatio-temporal fluctuations in cropland and particular crop species availability for 2 years. We modeled the effects of cropland on space use and resource selection at multiple spatio-temporal scales to characterize population and individual habitat components of mule deer.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We observed a functional response in cropland use, where at low coverage, use was proportional to availability but decreased with > 20% cropland coverage at the home range and within-home range scales. Few mule deer exhibited long-distance movements towards cropland. Individuals within 1.6 km of cropland exhibited greater cropland use, whereas deer > 4.2 km from cropland rarely used these areas. At the population level, mule deer selected cropland during the winter and late summer, probably for nutritional benefit when rangeland nutrients are low. At a finer scale, step-selection functions identified individual heterogeneity in crop species selection. Winter wheat, alfalfa, and fallow fields had greater use relative to other crop types. Generally, 15-60% of mule deer with access to cropland selected alfalfa year-round, and up to 63% of deer selected winter wheat post-reproduction.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our results suggest that at a low spatial coverage, cropland alters the spatial ecology of mule deer at several spatio-temporal scales and may provide nutritional benefits, but at a cost of lost habitat when cropland exceeds 20% of the landscape. Declining groundwater resources and an exponentially growing human population will alter future farming practices. Understanding how species occupying these environments, such as mule deer, are influenced by human-induced landscape changes can enhance mitigation of human-wildlife interactions and aid conservation actions as policy and social pressures shape future agricultural practices.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":"13 1","pages":"38"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12142936/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144250869","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Movement EcologyPub Date : 2025-06-05DOI: 10.1186/s40462-025-00563-4
Jessica L Rudd, Kim Aarestrup, Ghalia Abel, Francisco Alemany, Henrik Baktoft, Francis C T Binney, Samantha Birch, Kim Birnie-Gauvin, Barbara A Block, Martin A Collins, Owen M Exeter, Francesco Garzon, Thomas W Horton, Alex Plaster, David Righton, Jeroen van der Kooij, Matthew J Witt, Serena Wright, Lucy A Hawkes
{"title":"Use of accelerometry to measure the dynamics of activity patterns of Atlantic bluefin tuna after tagging and release.","authors":"Jessica L Rudd, Kim Aarestrup, Ghalia Abel, Francisco Alemany, Henrik Baktoft, Francis C T Binney, Samantha Birch, Kim Birnie-Gauvin, Barbara A Block, Martin A Collins, Owen M Exeter, Francesco Garzon, Thomas W Horton, Alex Plaster, David Righton, Jeroen van der Kooij, Matthew J Witt, Serena Wright, Lucy A Hawkes","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00563-4","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-025-00563-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Research on the direct effects of capture and tagging on post-release behaviour is typically limited to short-term deployments. To investigate the initial and longer-term behavioural responses to capture and tagging, we deployed eight Cefas G7 tags (1Hz depth and temperature, and 20 Hz triaxial acceleration) for 21-94 hours and 12 Wildlife Computers MiniPATs (depth, temperature, light and triaxial acceleration, each at 0.2 Hz) for 110-366 days on Atlantic bluefin tuna (ABT) in the English Channel. Post-release, ABT exhibited a strong, highly active initial swimming response, consistent with patterns reported in previous bluefin tuna, billfish and elasmobranch tracking studies. Accelerometry tags revealed that activity (VeDBA g), tailbeat amplitude (g) and dominant stroke frequency (Hz) were greater (2.4, 3.2 and 1.4 times respectively) within the first hour post-release than the subsequent 24 hours, stabilising at lower levels within 5-9 hours. However, lower resolution accelerometry data (0.2 Hz), obtained from longer periods from MiniPATs, revealed that fish then maintained this reduced activity for 11 ± 7.9 days (mean ± 1 SD; range: 2-26 days), during which they displayed disrupted diel patterns of activity and allocated on average 5 minutes of each day to burst energy events, compared to 14 minutes (max 74 minutes) during \"recovered\" periods. Subsequently, their activity levels increased again and were characterised by higher magnitude acceleration events (which may constitute feeding events) and became more active during the day than at night. Year-long deployments revealed that consistent diel vertical migration, diurnal patterns of activity, and increased time allocation to fast starts are normal for ABT off the British Isles in summer months, and their absence at the start of data collection may be related to the effect of capture and tagging, which may be longer lasting, and more complex than previously appreciated.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":"13 1","pages":"37"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12139206/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144235959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Movement EcologyPub Date : 2025-05-27DOI: 10.1186/s40462-025-00559-0
Milan Říha, Lukáš Vejřík, Rubén Rabaneda-Bueno, Ivan Jarić, Marie Prchalová, Ivana Vejříková, Marek Šmejkal, Petr Blabolil, Martin Čech, Vladislav Draštík, Michaela Holubová, Tomáš Jůza, Karl Ø Gjelland, Zuzana Sajdlová, Luboš Kočvara, Michal Tušer, Jiří Peterka
{"title":"Ecosystem, spatial and trophic dimensions of niche partitioning among freshwater fish predators.","authors":"Milan Říha, Lukáš Vejřík, Rubén Rabaneda-Bueno, Ivan Jarić, Marie Prchalová, Ivana Vejříková, Marek Šmejkal, Petr Blabolil, Martin Čech, Vladislav Draštík, Michaela Holubová, Tomáš Jůza, Karl Ø Gjelland, Zuzana Sajdlová, Luboš Kočvara, Michal Tušer, Jiří Peterka","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00559-0","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-025-00559-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Niche partitioning allows species to diversify resource utilisation and space allocation and reduce interspecific competition. Variations in abiotic and biotic conditions in different ecosystems may further influence resource availability and habitat utilisation, potentially reducing competition. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of environmental variation on spatial and trophic niche overlap between two freshwater apex predators, the northern pike (Esox lucius) and the European catfish (Silurus glanis), in three different water bodies.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We used fine-scale acoustic telemetry to assess the spatial niche overlap of pike and catfish, analyzing their spatial and habitat use in relation to the thermocline and their presence in benthic versus open-water habitats. Stable isotope analysis (SIA) was used to quantify trophic niche overlap and dietary differences between the species. We compared the habitat use, spatial niche width and overlap, and trophic differentiation among waterbodies to determine how environmental conditions influence predator interactions.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>During summer, pike and catfish primarily occupied benthic habitats above the thermocline across all waterbodies and diel periods. However, catfish more frequently used open water above the thermocline, while pike were more often present in both open water and benthic habitats below it. While this general pattern of habitat use was consistent, its extent varied among lakes, suggesting that local environmental conditions shape species-specific habitat selection. Despite these variations, the species exhibited substantial spatial overlap, though its magnitude fluctuated across waterbodies and diel periods. Catfish occupied a broader spatial niche in two waterbodies, while pike had a broader niche in one. Across all lakes, catfish consistently maintained a broader trophic niche than pike. However, pike exhibited higher trophic overlap with catfish than vice versa, with nearly complete overlap in one lake and substantial but incomplete overlap in others. This suggests that pike relies more heavily on shared prey resources, while catfish exploits a broader range of food sources beyond those used by pike.These patterns were primarily driven by the position of the thermocline, prey availability, structural complexity and the greater foraging plasticity of catfish, highlighting the environmental dependence of niche partitioning in these predators.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our findings demonstrate that spatial and trophic niche overlaps between pike and catfish are highly context-dependent, shaped by abiotic conditions, prey availability, and species-specific foraging strategies. This study highlights the importance of integrating spatial and trophic analyses to understand predator interactions in aquatic ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":"13 1","pages":"36"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12107910/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144163789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Movement EcologyPub Date : 2025-05-19DOI: 10.1186/s40462-025-00561-6
Rick W Heeres, Martin Leclerc, Shane Frank, Alexander Kopatz, Fanie Pelletier, Andreas Zedrosser
{"title":"Flexibility in female spatiotemporal behavioral tactics to counter infanticide risk during the mating season.","authors":"Rick W Heeres, Martin Leclerc, Shane Frank, Alexander Kopatz, Fanie Pelletier, Andreas Zedrosser","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00561-6","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-025-00561-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Parental care is exclusively provided by females in most mammals, and mothers use several spatiotemporal behavioral tactics to minimize risks to offspring and to enhance fitness of both the mother and offspring. In species with infanticide and varying maternal care duration, dependent offspring remain vulnerable to male infanticide until separation from the mother. However, extending maternal care likely results in parent-offspring conflicts. We investigated the spatiotemporal behavioral tactics of lone female brown bears and mothers accompanied by offspring of varying ages in relation to infanticide risk and offspring separation during the mating season.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We used data from 144 individuals (92 females and 52 males, 2003-2022) to characterize female spatiotemporal behavioral responses to males during the mating season by contrasting home range and encounter area sizes, proximity to males, and dyadic associations in relation to female reproductive status. We investigated the spatiotemporal behavioral responses of mothers from a socio-spatial perspective by connecting large-scale movement behavior (home range and overlap) and small-scale social behavior (proximity and associations) of adult females and males.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found that females with dependent offspring of any age avoided males during the mating season. In comparison, lone females or mothers that lost or separated from their offspring during the mating season used larger areas and moved in closer proximity to males. The home range of mothers that remained with their offspring still largely overlapped with male home ranges, however, they did not associate (< 100 m) with males. Additionally, mothers with yearlings had similar sized home ranges as solitary females, but larger home ranges in comparison to mothers with cubs-of-the-year. This suggests that mothers with yearlings are more conspicuous on the landscape which may result in a higher detectability by males.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our results suggest that mothers with offspring of any age perceive adult males as potential source of infanticide and use spatiotemporal avoidance tactics. Generally, family groups had high home range overlap with adult males, but family groups that remained together throughout the mating season did not associate with any adult male. Mothers with yearlings used larger areas in comparison to mothers with cubs, potentially indicating their increasing energetic needs. The use of spatiotemporal behavioral tactics to avoid infanticide by females with dependent offspring irrespective of age likely disrupts movement, mating, and social dynamics and on the long-term potentially increases the risk of infanticide to older offspring.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":"13 1","pages":"35"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12090450/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144103195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Movement EcologyPub Date : 2025-05-14DOI: 10.1186/s40462-025-00554-5
Vickie DeNicola, Stefano Mezzini, Petar Bursać, Pranav Minasandra, Francesca Cagnacci
{"title":"Effects of vasectomy on breeding-related movement and activity in free-ranging white-tailed deer.","authors":"Vickie DeNicola, Stefano Mezzini, Petar Bursać, Pranav Minasandra, Francesca Cagnacci","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00554-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-025-00554-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>An abundance of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in suburban communities can lead to problems such as increased deer-vehicle collisions (DVCs), tick-borne illnesses, and forest degradation. Deer populations can be managed using traditional lethal methods; however, these methods are often impractical, ineffective, or socially unacceptable, prompting interest in management alternatives, including fertility control. Some fertility control methods (such as vasectomy, tubal ligation, and porcine zona pellucida-based vaccines) cause unsuccessfully bred females to experience multiple estrous cycles, potentially altering their movement behavior and fine-scale activity. Such changes could increase the risk of DVCs and negatively affect the physical condition of the animals. However, the effects of such treatments on animal behavior remain poorly understood, specifically in terms of breeding-related movements and energetics. This study aimed to evaluate the behavioral impacts of a large-scale vasectomy program on white-tailed deer.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a 2-year study using a treatment/control design and analyzed biologging data of white-tailed deer at two sites near New York City, USA. We used a moving-window approach to assess the effects of a large-scale vasectomy program on the seasonal changes in movement behavior (home-range size, distance traveled, diffusion, and excursivity) and fine-scale activity (time spent in low-activity states and the daily number of state transitions).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>There were no biologically significant differences in movement behavior or activity trends in either sex between the treatment and control groups. Females in both groups exhibited similar trends in all movement metrics, but females at the treatment site tended to switch between activity states more often in winter. Males at the treatment site expanded their space use less than control males during peak breeding season but otherwise exhibited similar movement behavior trends. Mortality rates and causes were similar at both sites.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The vasectomy program, despite causing extra estrus periods in unsuccessfully bred females, is unlikely to cause appreciable behavioral changes that could exacerbate management-related issues at the time scales investigated. Fertility control methods inducing extra estrus periods could be implemented alone or alongside other strategies to reduce abundant deer populations with minimal impact on behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":"13 1","pages":"34"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12079978/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144082072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Movement EcologyPub Date : 2025-05-09DOI: 10.1186/s40462-025-00558-1
Barbara Muhling, Stephanie Snyder, Elliott L Hazen, Rebecca Whitlock, Jong-Yeon Park, Charles A Stock, Barbara A Block
{"title":"Climate change impacts to foraging seascapes for a highly migratory top predator.","authors":"Barbara Muhling, Stephanie Snyder, Elliott L Hazen, Rebecca Whitlock, Jong-Yeon Park, Charles A Stock, Barbara A Block","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00558-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-025-00558-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Climate change is impacting the distribution and movement of mobile marine organisms globally. Statistical species distribution models are commonly used to explain past patterns and anticipate future shifts. However, purely correlative models can fail under novel environmental conditions, or omit key mechanistic processes driving species habitat use.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Here, we used a unique combination of laboratory measurements, field observations, and environmental predictors to investigate spatial variability in energetic seascapes for juvenile North Pacific albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga). This species undertakes some of the longest migrations of any finfish, but their susceptibility to climate-driven habitat changes is poorly understood. We first built a framework based on Generalized Additive Models to understand mechanisms of energy gain and loss in albacore, and how these are linked to ocean conditions. We then applied the framework to projections from an ensemble of earth system models to quantify changes in thermal and foraging habitats between historical (1971-2000) and future (2071-2100) time periods.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We show how albacore move seasonally between feeding grounds in the California Current System and the offshore North Pacific, foraging most successfully in spring and summer. The thermal corridors used for migration largely coincide with minimum metabolic costs of movement. Future warming may result in loss of favorable thermal habitat in the sub-tropics and a reduction in total habitat area, but allow increased access to productive and energetically favorable sub-arctic ecosystems. Importantly, while thermal considerations suggest a loss in habitat area, forage considerations suggest that these losses may be offset by more energetically favorable conditions in the habitat that remains. In addition, the energetic favorability of coastal foraging areas may increase in future, with decreasing suitability of offshore foraging grounds. Our results clearly show the importance of moving beyond temperature when considering climate change impacts on marine species and their movement ecology.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Considering energetic seascapes adds essential mechanistic underpinning to projections of habitat gain and loss, particularly for highly migratory animals. Overall, improved understanding of mechanisms driving migration behavior, physiological constraints, and behavioral plasticity is required to better anticipate how climate change will impact pelagic marine ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":"13 1","pages":"33"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12065262/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144052181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Movement EcologyPub Date : 2025-05-06DOI: 10.1186/s40462-025-00556-3
Brendan P Boyd, Sue M Hayes, Anna Agazzi Migotto, Bridget J M Stutchbury
{"title":"Age-related differences in fall migration timing and performance of juvenile and adult Wood Thrushes departing from a breeding site.","authors":"Brendan P Boyd, Sue M Hayes, Anna Agazzi Migotto, Bridget J M Stutchbury","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00556-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-025-00556-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Juvenile passerines are expected to have lower migration performance than adults due to their inexperience with long-distance flights and morphological limitations, such as shorter wing length. From 2016 to 2019 we radio-tagged nestling and adult Wood Thrushes (Hylocichla mustelina) at a breeding site in southwestern Ontario and used the automated Motus Wildlife Tracking System to test if age class predicts timing of the onset of fall migration (date, time of night), flight speed during the initial migration flight across Lake Erie, and overall pace of migration southward through the eastern United States. We detected 60/117 (51%) adults and 82/119 (69%) juveniles departing the breeding area as they initiated fall migration. Compared with adults, juveniles departed at an earlier date in fall and later time in the evening. When crossing Lake Erie on their first migratory flight juveniles travelled about 25% slower than adults but this was due primarily to adults making better use of tailwinds. When travelling south through the eastern U.S. juveniles had a slower overall migration pace (47.3 ± 5.1km/day) than adults (71.6 ± 4.7km/day). Although we found evidence that juvenile Wood Thrushes have an earlier and slower fall migration than adults, identifying the proximate and ultimate mechanisms remains a challenge. There is no evidence that juvenile Wood Thrushes are inefficient in migration flight or refueling at stopovers, and it is unlikely that the fall migration pace in this species affects their ability to compete for wintering food resources. More tracking studies from breeding sites are needed to understand the ecological factors favouring and biological significance of, age-related differences in migration performance.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":"13 1","pages":"32"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12057278/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144032794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Movement EcologyPub Date : 2025-04-25DOI: 10.1186/s40462-025-00555-4
Milaja Nykänen, Marja Niemi, Vincent Biard, Matt I D Carter, Enrico Pirotta, Mervi Kunnasranta
{"title":"Linking ringed seal foraging behaviour to environmental variability.","authors":"Milaja Nykänen, Marja Niemi, Vincent Biard, Matt I D Carter, Enrico Pirotta, Mervi Kunnasranta","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00555-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-025-00555-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Foraging rates directly influence animals' energetic intake and expenditure and are thus linked to body condition and the ability to survive and reproduce. Further, understanding the underlying processes driving a species' behaviour and habitat use is important as changes in behaviour could result from changes in environmental conditions.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this study, the dives of Saimaa ringed seals (Pusa hispida saimensis) were classified for the first time using hidden Markov models and telemetry data collected on individual dives, and the behavioural states of the diving seals were estimated. In addition, we used generalized additive mixed models on the foraging probability of the seals to identify environmental and temporal drivers of foraging behaviour.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We inferred three (in winter) or four (in summer) different dive types: sleeping/resting dives, shallow inactive dives, transiting dives and foraging dives, based on differences in dive metrics logged by or derived from data from telemetry tags. Long and relatively deep sleeping/resting dives were missing entirely in the winter, compensated by an increased proportion of time used for haul-out. We found profound differences in the behaviour of Saimaa ringed seals during the open water season compared to the ice-covered winter, with the greatest proportion of time allocated to foraging during the summer months (36%) and the lowest proportion in the winter (21%). The seals' foraging probability peaked in summer (July) and was highest during the daytime during both summer and winter months. Moreover, foraging probability was highest at lake depths of 7-30 m in the winter and at depths > 15 m in the summer. We also found some evidence of sex-specific foraging strategies that are adapted seasonally, with females preferring more sheltered water areas during winter.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>We suggest that the foraging behaviour of Saimaa ringed seals is largely influenced by diel vertical movements and availability of fish, and that the seals optimize their energy acquisition while conserving energy, especially during the cold winter months. Further, the seals display some flexibility in foraging strategies, a feature that may help this endangered subspecies to cope with the ongoing climate change.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":"13 1","pages":"31"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12023562/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144040153","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Movement EcologyPub Date : 2025-04-22DOI: 10.1186/s40462-025-00552-7
Nicholas J Russo, Jean Michel Takuo, Valorian Tegebong, Matthew LeBreton, Morgan Dean, António Ferraz, Nicolas Barbier, Martin Wikelski, Elsa M Ordway, Sassan Saatchi, Thomas B Smith
{"title":"Spaceborne and UAV-LiDAR reveal hammer-headed bat preference for intermediate canopy height and diverse structure in a Central African rainforest.","authors":"Nicholas J Russo, Jean Michel Takuo, Valorian Tegebong, Matthew LeBreton, Morgan Dean, António Ferraz, Nicolas Barbier, Martin Wikelski, Elsa M Ordway, Sassan Saatchi, Thomas B Smith","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00552-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-025-00552-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Animals with key ecological roles, such as seed-dispersing fruit bats, rely to varying degrees on habitat structure to indicate the locations of resources and risks.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>To understand how variation in vegetation structure influences fruit bat habitat selection, we related movement steps of hammer-headed bats (Hypsignathus monstrosus) to attributes of canopy height, vertical and horizontal vegetation structure, and habitat type in a mature rainforest of southern Cameroon. Vegetation structural metrics were measured with UAV-LiDAR at 10 m resolution for a 25 km<sup>2</sup> study area. Because bats frequently moved outside the study area, we also characterized vegetation height and horizontal complexity over the full extent of bat movement trajectories by upscaling UAV-LiDAR measurements using primarily GEDI LiDAR data.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>At the site level, hammer-headed bats preferred areas of intermediate canopy height (13.9-32.0 m) close to large canopy gaps (≥ 500 m<sup>2</sup>). Individual bats varied in selection for vertical vegetation complexity, distance to smaller canopy gaps (≥ 50 m<sup>2</sup>) and plant volume density of intermediate vegetation strata (10-20 m). Over the full extent of movement trajectories, hammer-headed bats consistently preferred intermediate canopy height, and areas closer to canopy gaps. At both spatial extents, bats moved the shortest distances in swamp habitats dominated by Raphia palms. These behaviors indicate the use of forest types that vary structurally, with a preference for open airspace during foraging or moving among resources, and for dense swamp vegetation during roosting and resting periods. In addition, most bats regularly made long flights of up to 17.7 km shortly after sunset and before sunrise and limited their movements to three or fewer destinations throughout the tracking period.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These results highlight the importance of structurally diverse landscapes for the nightly movements of hammer-headed bats. Our results show how remote sensing methods and animal tracking data can be integrated to understand habitat selection and movement behavior in tropical ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":"13 1","pages":"30"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12016133/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144055860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Movement EcologyPub Date : 2025-04-21DOI: 10.1186/s40462-025-00550-9
E Elizabeth Henderson, Michaela A Kratofil, Robin W Baird, Cameron R Martin, Annette E Harnish, Gabriela C Alongi, Steve W Martin, Brandon L Southall
{"title":"Exposure and response of satellite-tagged Blainville's beaked whales to mid-frequency active sonar off Kaua'i, Hawai'i.","authors":"E Elizabeth Henderson, Michaela A Kratofil, Robin W Baird, Cameron R Martin, Annette E Harnish, Gabriela C Alongi, Steve W Martin, Brandon L Southall","doi":"10.1186/s40462-025-00550-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-025-00550-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Beaked whale response to Navy sonars is a global concern due to past stranding events coinciding with training activity. Often, controlled exposure experiments involve tagging cetaceans with short-term, high-resolution tags and exposing them to relatively short, single bouts of mid-frequency active sonar (MFAS). In contrast, longer-duration satellite-transmitting tags deployed around Navy ranges enables behavioral response studies of animals exposed to realistic Navy training activities over extended periods and spatial scales, with multiple exposures to different sources.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>To study their behavior relative to extended periods of realistic Navy training, satellite-transmitting tags were deployed on four Blainville's beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris) on the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) off Kaua'i. Tags were deployed in 3 years, ahead of Submarine Command Courses (SCCs) with multiple sources of MFAS. Dive behavior of two tagged together were compared to acoustically detected group vocal periods (GVPs) on the range. Pre-exposure dive behavior metrics were compared to those during exposures. Horizontal movement behavior metrics were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric and Tukey-Kramer multiple comparison tests.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Two whales remained together and highly synchronized in their dive and movement behavior until the onset of MFAS, at which time they appeared to separate. Twenty-three deep foraging dives were matched to GVPs, including three during MFAS. Of the dive behavior metrics, only the depth of one intermediate dive during an exposure was outside the 95th percentile of baseline behavior. Three of the four movement behavior metrics (75%) were atypical relative to baseline for at least one whale across SCC phases, but response varied by individual. However, throughout the SCCs, the whales remained within tens of kilometers of PMRF, near areas used before and after SCCs.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These data demonstrate some apparent short-term changes to dive behavior and horizontal movement in response to MFAS. However, these beaked whales did not demonstrate sustained avoidance responses, remaining in the area west of the range during MFAS and in two cases returning to the range after the SCC. Additional tagging and photo-identification studies are critical to understand Blainville's beaked whale habitat use and residency and to assess the potential impact of repeated exposures to MFAS.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":"13 1","pages":"29"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12010625/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144058616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}