Movement Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Ecological barrier crossing strategies in longitudinal migrants: a case study of Mongolian gulls (Larus mongolicus) distributed in East Asia.","authors":"Jing Zhang, Lixia Chen, Ge Sun, Yiwen Chen, Yang Wu, Hongxing Jiang, Jiamei Xu, Lixin Wu, Xitao Zhang","doi":"10.1186/s40462-026-00673-7","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-026-00673-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Ecological barriers are major factors shaping the migratory strategies of birds. The Mongolian Plateau, with sparse and fragmented wetlands, provides limited stopover for waterbirds. Recent studies revealed that several bird species migrate longitudinally between their breeding sites in central Asia and the coasts of East Asia, thereby crossing the Mongolian Plateau. However, how these birds adapt their migratory strategies to cope with the environmental constraints imposed by the Mongolian Plateau remains poorly understood.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>To address this gap, we focused on the Mongolian gull (Larus mongolicus), a representative longitudinal migrant that migrates along the East Asian coast and crosses the Mongolian Plateau. Using satellite tracking data from 29 coastal and 30 inland migration events in spring, and 34 coastal and 33 inland migration events in autumn between 2018 and 2025, we analyzed the difference in their migration duration, stopover duration, travel duration, migration distance, number of stopover sites, daily travel speed, straightness index and flight altitude relative to the ground between coastal and inland migration stage.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found that, in both spring and autumn, inland migration across the Mongolian Plateau covered significantly longer distance than coastal migration and was associated with higher daily travel speed. Migration duration, stopover duration, and number of stopover sites were all markedly lower during inland migration than during coastal migration, particularly in autumn. Flight altitude relative to the ground was significantly higher during inland migration compared to coastal migration across both seasons. Furthermore, flight altitude relative to the ground exhibited a pronounced diel pattern across inland and coastal migration stage, with birds flying at lower altitudes at night, increasing altitude during the day, and decreasing altitude toward dusk.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Mongolian gulls adopt a strategy of rapidly crossing the Mongolian Plateau and adjacent arid and semiarid areas by minimizing stopover use, increasing daily travel speed, and flying at higher altitudes. These findings highlight the Mongolian Plateau as an important ecological barrier shaping migration behavior in this species and, together with growing evidence from other tracked and banded species migrating across this region, suggest its broader ecological and conservation significance.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13483833/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148229143","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}

{"title":"Use of deep learning to predict chronic wasting disease status based on animal movement.","authors":"Raymond L Blaha, Christopher J Silva, Stephanie A Cunningham, Melia T DeVivo, David R Edmunds, Melanie R Boudreau","doi":"10.1186/s40462-026-00668-4","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-026-00668-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is an invariably fatal prion disease that impacts cervid populations and wildlife management across North America. Infected cervids often remain asymptomatic for months and movement-based anomaly detection from Global Positioning System collaring data offers a potential tool for understanding early and late stage CWD-based behavioral changes. Here we evaluate whether deep learning behavioral anomaly detection models such as autoencoders (AE) and conditional autoencoders (cAE) can effectively identify anomalous movement changes in free-ranging mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) that may have been associated with CWD infection. Unsupervised AEs achieved ≥ 84% accuracy and 89% precision irrespective of whether the model was trained using only CWD^- or a 60/40 split of CWD⁺ / CWD^- individuals. Important movement features in distinguishing between CWD⁺ and CWD^- animals included metrics related to velocity, direction, and sinuosity. In contrast, supervised cAEs only achieved 54-77% accuracy and ≤ 53% precision across models trained with incidence rates of CWD⁺ individuals ranging from 10 to 40%; the models also had inconsistent results reducing their generality. Finally, using the best fitting model (AE trained using only CWD^- animals), we found that early-stage animals exhibited reduced space use, whereas late-stage individuals presented more pronounced declines in velocity and altered directional patterns. These findings indicate that AEs can accurately identify CWD-related behavioral anomalies using movement data and that variation in what movement metrics matter depends on the stage of the disease.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13479571/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148220740","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}

{"title":"Fluctuations in direct human presence, not predictable weekly cycles, influence avoidance behaviour in ravens.","authors":"Varalika Jain, Matthias-Claudio Loretto, Thomas Bugnyar, Petra Sumasgutner","doi":"10.1186/s40462-026-00671-9","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-026-00671-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Rhythms in human activity create patterns of opportunities and disturbances for wildlife, influencing their behaviour and spatial ecology. The weekend effect hypothesis posits that weekday-weekend routines in human activity can impact wildlife in creating cyclic conditions. At our study site - an outdoor wildlife park - free-flying ravens opportunistically exploit food intended for captive animals on a routine basis. While disturbances from visitor activity levels are typically low on weekdays and high on weekends, they can also vary day-to-day. Our access to data detailing visitor numbers makes our context well-suited to test whether ravens anticipate and respond to predictable weekday-weekend patterns following (1) a '5 + 2' structure, or if they respond (2) flexibly to fluctuations in direct human activity levels. By testing the weekend effect hypothesis from the perspective of a '5 + 2' pattern versus flexibly responding to fluctuations in human activity, we better understand wildlife response strategies to human activity.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Using long-term GPS tracking data, we investigated the weekend effect hypothesis by examining raven foraging probability and space use across two temporal scales: (1) daily patterns over five years, encompassing periods of Covid-19 pandemic-related restrictions, and (2) bihourly patterns over six weeks. We hypothesized that increased human activity levels would result in lower foraging probabilities and higher space use in ravens, varying between weekdays and weekends.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Our findings provided limited support for the weekend effect hypothesis, considering a '5 + 2' pattern in human activity. However, ravens consistently avoided elevated human activity by decreasing in their probability of foraging at the site and increasing space use on a daily level.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our study reveals that ravens are behaviourally flexible in their movement responses to disturbance when exploiting anthropogenically created foraging opportunities. Changes influencing anthropogenic resources and disturbances at resources should consider the potential knock-on effects to wildlife.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13450542/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148158992","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}

{"title":"Overcoming the curse of knowledge: guidelines for reporting system-specific details of host infection and migration dynamics.","authors":"Sandra A Binning, Allison K Shaw","doi":"10.1186/s40462-026-00665-7","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-026-00665-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Literature syntheses link knowledge across study systems and regions. However, specific details on the biological systems of the included publications may not always be explicitly outlined because of communication gaps (a.k.a. The Curse of Knowledge) and/or knowledge gaps. These gaps can lead to inappropriate comparisons across studies if researchers unfamiliar with the systems make inaccurate assumptions about aspects of study design or natural history. In the context of movement ecology, a growing number of publications explore how host infection and host migration intersect, work that is critical for predicting how global change will impact both animal movement and parasite transmission. Given the complexity of host and parasite life histories, these studies may be particularly vulnerable to knowledge and communication gaps. To minimize communication gaps and highlight knowledge gaps, we developed a checklist with 15 specific elements separated into three categories about migration, parasites, and sampling that should be addressed within a publication to provide a more complete picture of the study system for a non-specialist. We validate our checklist in three ways. First, we use two worked examples to show the information each element reveals. Second, we apply our checklist to a database of 36 publications on migrating infected hosts to quantify which details are typically missing from the published literature. Third, we create a try-it-yourself example based on a fictional study system to illustrate the challenges associated with extracting information on an unknown system. All but one of the publications assessed were missing information on at least one checklist element and 11 were missing more than half. Our checklist is therefore a tool that researchers can use to broaden the impact of their studies and facilitate cross-species comparisons and syntheses. We hope this work stimulates interest in the value of reporting guidelines and encourages researchers to apply this approach to other aspects of animal ecology that might similarly suffer from the Curse of Knowledge.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13231544/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148159071","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}

{"title":"Restriction of pedicel-flagellum joint in the antennae negatively impacts recruitment but not exploration in ants.","authors":"Udipta Chakraborti, Snigdha Mukhopadhyay, Sumana Annagiri","doi":"10.1186/s40462-026-00663-9","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-026-00663-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The antennal flagellum movement relative to the pedicel, helps insects detect different cues and interpret their surroundings. Antennae play a crucial role in the tandem run recruitment process, where one ant follows another ant to reach the destination by maintaining a continuous physical contact, mostly using antennae, throughout their journey. In this study, we investigate how the restriction in movement of the pedicel-flagellum joint impacts the exploratory walk and recruitment during relocation in Diacamma indicum, a tandem running tropical ponerine ant.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We studied the exploratory walk of ants by examining a total number of 72 individuals from four categories, i.e. no antennae restriction (NR), both antennae restriction (BR), right (RR) or left (LR) antennae restriction. The relocation process was studied by comparing 10 unrestricted and 8 antennae restricted colonies contrasting the dynamics. The movement dynamics of both the individual ants and tandem pairs were examined by analysing their heading direction, speed, sinuosity, straightness, and step lengths.</p><p><strong>Result: </strong>Restricted ants showed no significant change in speed, path shape and step length in their exploratory walk compared to the unrestricted ants. Restricted colonies performed the relocation at the cost of higher latency and transportation time due to the involvement of comparatively lower numbers of tandem leaders as compared to unrestricted colonies. Irrespective of restriction status, all the tandem pairs were significantly oriented toward the new nest. From the leader's point of view, BR leaders showed lower speed, more winding paths and higher proportion of small steps in comparison to unrestricted tandem pairs, while RR leaders hardly became tandem leaders. From the follower's point of view, RR and BR followers showed significantly lower speed.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This study showed that the restriction in the pedicel-flagellum joint has no impact on the exploration walk in ants but negatively impacts the relocation process by affecting the tandem run recruitment. In the next step, it is essential to understand the functionality of the pedicel-flagellum joint and how ants compensate for loss of information from a sensory modality.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13248242/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148152196","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}

{"title":"Greater pollen-mediated gene flow among than within populations of a bumblebee-pollinated forest herb despite habitat fragmentation.","authors":"Jannis Till Feigs, Siyu Huang, Katja Kramp, Stephanie I J Holzhauer, Tobias Naaf","doi":"10.1186/s40462-026-00664-8","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-026-00664-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Pollen flow within and among spatially isolated forest herb populations in agricultural landscapes depends on the movement activity of their pollinators. For central-place and traplining foragers, such as bumblebees, this movement activity is expected to reflect how they exploit floral resources across the landscape. However, it remains unclear how the bumblebees' foraging behavior actually shapes the mating patterns of forest herbs within and among forest patches.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Here, we conducted a landscape genetic analysis of two generations of the forest herb P. multiflorum using microsatellites to investigate (A) the proportions of pollen-mediated gene flow within and among forest patches, (B) how the spatial position and size of shoot clusters influence the pollen-mediated gene flow within forest patches, and (C) how landscape composition affects pollen immigration rates into forest patches.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found that pollen immigration rates per pollen receptor plant were high, with only a few shoot clusters within a forest patch serving as pollen donors. Larger shoot clusters had higher probabilities of donating pollen. Both pollen immigration rates per pollen receptor and the genetic diversity of the offspring were significantly affected by maize cover and linear landscape elements in the surrounding landscape. We found that in landscapes dominated by land-use types with low floral-resource availability, higher pollen immigration rates into wild plant populations do not necessarily lead to higher genetic diversity.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our results suggest that trapline foraging promotes greater pollen flow among forest patches than within them, and that shoot clusters within a forest patch contribute unequally to sexual reproduction. In the studied agricultural landscape, semi-natural habitat patches with high floral-resource availability may either compete for or facilitate pollinator activity and the resulting gene flow among forest patches, while smaller patches act rather as stepping stone habitats, larger ones may retain pollinators and distract them from less attractive forest herb populations. Similarly, linear landscape elements oriented towards pollen receptors increased both the amount and allelic richness of incoming pollen, whereas those oriented orthogonally had the opposite effect. The study also emphasized that self-incompatible bumblebee-pollinated plant species in resource-poor landscapes may form metapopulation with regular pollen exchange which does not automatically lead to high levels of introduced new alleles.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13224658/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148102333","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}

{"title":"Tracking of adult males and females across a migratory divide: migration strategies of a western baltic common tern (Sterna hirundo) population.","authors":"Simon Piro, Eva Stöbbe, Matthias H Weissensteine, Angela Schmitz Ornés","doi":"10.1186/s40462-026-00666-6","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-026-00666-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>European Common Terns' migration routes along the eastern Atlantic flyway and wintering areas in western and southern Africa were identified in ringing studies. Recent tracking studies revealed a migratory divide and the use of an eastern African migration route and wintering areas in the Mozambique Channel.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>71 Common Terns breeding in a colony at the German Baltic coast were tracked with light-level geolocators. Linear Models were used to test influence of sex, year, migration route, and wintering area on timing of migration, and duration of migration and stopovers.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 58 individuals used the western African migration route, while 13 individuals used the eastern route. 45 individuals wintered at the southern African coast, while 12 individuals wintered in the Gulf of Guinea, and 13 individuals wintered in the Mozambique channel. Migration route and wintering area were identified as the most important factors influencing the duration of migration and stopovers, with birds using the eastern route showing significantly longer stopovers and duration of migration. Sex was identified to especially impact the start of migration, with females starting both autumn and spring migration significantly earlier than males. Arrival in the breeding area was only affected by the year, but this might be an effect of very low sample size in some years. Birds wintering in western Africa showed a tendency to a longer spring migration, while those wintering in eastern Africa tended to longer autumn migration.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The eastern African migration route and wintering area seem to be much more common than ringing had indicated. Route and sex explain a substantial part of the observed variation in timing and duration of migration, but many factors such as annual variation in weather, wind, food availability as well as individual variation in fitness and breeding success are likely to affect timing of migration and duration of migration and stopovers. Comparison of duration of autumn and spring migration indicates that contradicting results reported in tracking studies from different European breeding areas might be explained by wintering area rather than breeding area, but are pronounced in birds with shorter migration distance.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13224715/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148102312","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}

{"title":"Upstream passage windows for anadromous fish at a large barrier in the Rhine-Meuse estuary, 1996-2018.","authors":"Melanie P Meijer Zu Schlochtern, Leopold A J Nagelkerke, Anthonie D Buijse, F Tim Vriese, André W Breukelaar, Jochem Hop, Hendrik V Winter","doi":"10.1186/s40462-026-00667-5","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-026-00667-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Passage behaviour at barriers of migratory fish is well studied in rivers, whereas little is known about fish movement at estuarine barriers. In response to climate change, more estuarine barriers are likely to be erected in the future, further compromising connectivity for diadromous fish. As these fish species are already severely endangered, there is an urgent need to better understand passage behaviour at barriers to facilitate connectivity. These fish face challenges at estuarine sluice gates, where suitable passage windows occur only infrequently. To enhance fish migration, sluice management at the Haringvliet barrier, located at the mouth of the Rhine and Meuse rivers, was recently adjusted to allow controlled inflow from the sea (\"Kier management\"). We assessed upstream passage windows for large anadromous fish prior to this adjustment, using long-term (1996-2018) telemetry (NEDAP Trail System^®) and environmental data. Of 1,751 tagged Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), sea trout (Salmo trutta), and sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), 516 (29%) entered the rivers and for 68 fish we could determine the exact conditions during sluice passage. Our results show the barrier effect of the sluices and indicate the importance of river discharge to attract anadromous fish. Sluices discharged only during low tide, with flow velocities depending largely on water level differences between Haringvliet and the sea. Fish passage occurred primarily (72%) at the end of discharge periods, when the incoming tide reduced water level differences and flow velocities were lowest. Our findings also underline species-specific differences in passage conditions. Sluice passage for salmon and sea trout was limited to daylight hours, whereas sea lamprey showed no diel preference. Sea trout took, on average, more time between release and successful passage and showed a wider range in conditions, while sea lamprey had a limited seasonal range, and salmon appeared most selective in their passage conditions. The frequency of windows in time with potential passage conditions was strongly limited for all species under these unnatural conditions. These findings highlight the need for species-specific management to enhance connectivity at estuarine barriers. We recommend prolonging sluice openings during small water level differences to improve upstream passage for anadromous species.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13295735/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148102344","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}

{"title":"Resource availability and anthropogenic disturbance alter how wolves move and feed: comparing two populations.","authors":"Christina M Prokopenko, Katrien A Kingdon, Daniel L J Dupont, Brendan M Carswell, Taylor M Naaykens, John Prokopenko, Julie W Turner, Sana Zabihi-Seissan, Eric Vander Wal","doi":"10.1186/s40462-026-00650-0","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-026-00650-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Animals behave 'optimally' when they minimize their costs while maximizing their energetic gain. Optimal foraging theory predicts that with decreasing resource abundance, animals will increase 1) niche breadth, 2) territory size and movement distance, and 3) time spent at resource patches. We used optimal foraging as a guiding framework to test what drives differences in behaviour of GPS collared wolves in two predator populations. As expected, niche breadth and territory sizes were larger, movement rates were greater and cluster durations were longer in the study area with relatively lower resource abundance Our comparative test through the lens of optimal foraging theory led to some unexpected discoveries. Specifically, differences in these responses were not explained by the density of the large primary prey (moose) but instead anthropogenic disturbance (linear feature density) was a ubiquitous influence on wolf behaviours. Wolves in higher linear feature density responded by reducing their cluster residency and increased step lengths and territory sizes with increases in linear feature density. Our work provides evidence that large carnivores can mediate changes in resources by adjusting their space use and time budgets in a way that corresponds with optimal behaviour - maximizing their energy gain and minimizing costs.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13371553/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147989955","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}

{"title":"Satellite tracking reveals the home range and movement ecology across the annual cycle of a 32 g songbird.","authors":"Zishi Wu, Noah G Perlut","doi":"10.1186/s40462-026-00662-w","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40462-026-00662-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Understanding movement ecology across life-history stages is critical for conserving declining migratory species. The Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), a grassland songbird, exhibits complex spatial behaviors shaped by annual cycle stage, landscape context, and environmental conditions. We investigated the movement ecology of adult male Bobolinks across three stages of the annual cycle using satellite tracking.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We deployed Sunbird Argos satellite tags on 26 adult male Bobolinks from two breeding sites in the northeastern United States: one large, continuous grassland and one small, isolated site. Using continuous-time movement models, we estimated home range size and composition, analyzed movement patterns during nesting, post-fledging, and fall migration periods, and compared these parameters between sites. We documented nocturnal pre-migratory flights and used multiple linear regression to assess environmental and geographic factors associated with stopover movement.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>During nesting, males at the large site maintained larger home ranges with greater grassland cover than males at the isolated small site. By the post-fledging period, home range sizes no longer differed between sites, although home ranges at the large site still contained a higher proportion of grassland. We recorded temporary movements outside of established home ranges (forays) of up to 17 km during the nesting period, potentially linked to extra-pair mating, and provided evidence of nocturnal pre-migratory flights in most individuals. During migration, stopover home-range size was only moderately associated with temporal and environmental variables and was not influenced by landscape context.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study represents one of the first applications of fine-scale satellite tags on small migratory passerines across multiple annual cycle stages. It extends evidence of breeding-season forays and nocturnal pre-migratory flights to a grassland specialist, highlighting the behavioral flexibility of Bobolinks across seasons. Bobolinks adapted their space use and movement strategies to meet varying ecological demands. Our study emphasized the need to maintain connected grassland networks to support breeding populations and protect key Caribbean stopover sites to sustain Bobolinks along their long-distance migration route.</p>","PeriodicalId":54288,"journal":{"name":"Movement Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13220509/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147977274","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}