Home range in genus Capra: from polygons to Brownian bridges of scabietic and healthy Iberian ibexes (Capra pyrenaica).

Home range and home range overlap can be used to describe use of space and movement of wildlife. During the last years, advancements in technology have greatly improved our understanding of animal movement, especially among large herbivores. Wild ungulate abundance and distribution have increased in temperate areas. Moreover, their diseases-including sarcoptic mange in the Iberian Ibex (Capra pyrenaica)-have become a cause of concern for livestock, public health, and wildlife conservation. In this study, we first reviewed existing literature on the home range of species in the genus Capra. We then analyzed data from 52 GPS-GSM-collared Iberian ibexes, of which 33 were healthy and 19 were affected by sarcoptic mange from 3 different populations in the southeastern Iberian Peninsula to analyze: (1) differences in size and characteristics of home ranges obtained by the 3 most commonly used methodologies-minimum convex polygon, kernel density estimation, and Brownian bridges movement models (BBMMs); and (2) the impact of endemic sarcoptic mange on Iberian Ibex home range. The literature review revealed that available information on spatial behavior of Capra spp. was based only on 3 species, including the Iberian Ibex, estimated through a diversity of methods which made it difficult to compare results. We found positive correlations among the different home range estimation methods in the Iberian Ibex, with BBMMs proving to be the most accurate. This study is the first to use BBMMs for estimating home range in this species, and it revealed a marked seasonal behavior in spatial use, although sarcoptic mange smoothed such seasonal pattern. The seasonal overlaps obtained suggest that core areas of the Iberian Ibex change within wider home range areas, which are ecological parameters relevant to identifying key areas for species management and conservation.

Home range size and habitat selection of owned outdoor domestic cats (Felis catus) in urban southwestern Ontario.

Domestic cats (Felis catus) play a dual role in society as both companion animals and predators. When provided with unsupervised outdoor access, cats can negatively impact native wildlife and create public health and animal welfare challenges. The effective implementation of management strategies, such as buffer zones or curfews, requires an understanding of home range size, the factors that influence their movement, and the types of habitats they use. Here, we used a community/citizen scientist approach to collect movement and habitat use data using GPS collars on owned outdoor cats in the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge-Guelph region, southwestern Ontario, Canada. Mean (± SD) 100% minimum convex polygon home range size was 8 ± 8 ha (range: 0.34-38 ha) and was positively associated with road density but not with intrinsic factors such as boldness, sex, or age. With regards to habitat selection, cats used greenspaces, roads, and agricultural land less often than predicted but strongly selected for impervious surfaces (urban areas other than greenspaces or roads). Our results suggest that wildlife near buildings and residential areas are likely at the greatest risk of cat predation and that a buffer size of 840 m would be needed to restrict cats from entering areas of conservation concern.

Little Owl Aggression and Territory in Urban and Rural Landscapes.

Urbanization is a major land use change across the globe with vast effects on wildlife. In this paper, we studied (1) the territorial displays of Little Owls in urban and rural landscapes, analyzing also (2) the size and habitat composition of the territories, and (3) the factors affecting territory size in both landscapes. To do that, we used t-tests, Principal Components Analysis, and General Linear mixed model procedures. The territory size was smaller in urban than in rural landscapes. Urban territories of Little Owls are characterized by a lower cover of grassland, tall crops, short crops, gardens, and orchards, as well as a higher cover of built-up areas than territories in rural landscapes. Territory size in rural landscapes was negatively correlated with seasonal progress and positively correlated with altitude. The rate of territorial displays was similar between urban and rural territories; however, birds differentially utilized various structures. In urban territories, birds mostly used buildings, whereas in rural territories, birds used electric pylons and trees. The compositional differences between territories in the two landscapes may have important consequences for other behavior types and possibly reproductive output in this species.

Habitat utilization distribution of sika deer (Cervus nippon).

Habitat-specific and movement-related behavioral studies are essential for the development of sustainable biodiversity management practices. Although the number of studies on sika deer is increasing, habitat utilization distribution (UD)-related studies remain limited. In this study, we investigated the habitat UD behavior of sika deer (Cervus nippon) using a literature survey and an experimental study on Suncheon Bonghwasan Mountain, South Korea. We reviewed home range-related literature on sika deer published between 1982 and 2019 in order to assess their estimation methods, study region, and research background. We observed that the number of studies on sika deer has increased. The minimum convex polygon (MCP) has been utilized the most to estimate habitat UD, followed by the kernel density (KD), the Brownian bridge model, and a combination of these methods. The average home ranges (95 % utilization distribution) of sika deer from the literature survey were 236.99 ha and 1183.96 ha using the minimum convex polygon and kernel density approaches, respectively. The five female deer in our experimental study on Suncheon Bonghwasan Mountain had a mean home range of 66.831 ± 15.241 ha using the MCP approach and 78.324 ± 20.82 ha using the KD approach. The UD behavior of sika deer explored in this research is expected to benefit future scholars and policymakers when formulating deer management and wildlife conservation strategies.

Estimation of the maximum utilization area including home range and peripheral sites.

There is increasing evidence that occasional utilization area (peripheral sites), in addition to typical utilization area (home range), is important for wildlife conservation and management. Here we estimated the maximum utilization area (MUA), including both typical and occasional utilization areas, based on asymptotic curves of utilization area plotted against sample size. In previous studies, these curves have conventionally been plots of cumulative utilization area versus sample size, but this cumulative method is sensitive to stochastic effects. We propose a new method based on simulation studies where outcomes of replicated simulations are averaged to reduce stochastic effects. In this averaged method, possible combinations of sample size with the same number of location data replicated from a dataset were averaged and applied to the curves of utilization area. The cumulative method resulted in a large variation of MUA estimates, depending on the start date as well as total sample size of the dataset. In the averaged method, MUA estimates were robust against changes in the start date and total sample size. The large variation of MUA estimates arose because location data on any day including the start date are affected by unpredictable effects associated with animal activity and environmental conditions. In the averaged method, replicates of sample size resulted in a reduction of temporal stochasticity, suggesting that the method stably provides reliable estimates for MUA.

Reptiles on the wrong track? Moving beyond traditional estimators with dynamic Brownian Bridge Movement Models.

BACKGROUND: Animal movement expressed through home ranges or space-use can offer insights into spatial and habitat requirements. However, different classes of estimation methods are currently instinctively applied to answer home range, space-use or movement-based research questions regardless of their widely varying outputs, directly impacting conclusions. Recent technological advances in animal tracking (GPS and satellite tags), have enabled new methods to quantify animal space-use and movement pathways, but so far have primarily targeted mammal and avian species. METHODS: Most reptile spatial ecology studies only make use of two older home range estimation methods: Minimum Convex Polygons (MCP) and Kernel Density Estimators (KDE), particularly with the Least Squares Cross Validation (LSCV) and reference (h ref ) bandwidth selection algorithms. These methods are frequently applied to answer space-use and movement-based questions. Reptile movement patterns are unique (e.g., low movement frequency, long stop-over periods), prompting investigation into whether newer movement-based methods -such as dynamic Brownian Bridge Movement Models (dBBMMs)- apply to Very High Frequency (VHF) radio-telemetry tracking data. We simulated movement data for three archetypical reptile species: a highly mobile active hunter, an ambush predator with long-distance moves and long-term sheltering periods, and an ambush predator with short-distance moves and short-term sheltering periods. We compared traditionally used estimators, MCP and KDE, with dBBMMs, across eight feasible VHF field sampling regimes for reptiles, varying from one data point every four daylight hours, to once per month. RESULTS: Although originally designed for GPS tracking studies, dBBMMs outperformed MCPs and KDE h ref across all tracking regimes in accurately revealing movement pathways, with only KDE LSCV performing comparably at some higher frequency sampling regimes. However, the LSCV algorithm failed to converge with these high-frequency regimes due to high site fidelity, and was unstable across sampling regimes, making its use problematic for species exhibiting long-term sheltering behaviours. We found that dBBMMs minimized the effect of individual variation, maintained low error rates balanced between omission (false negative) and commission (false positive), and performed comparatively well even under low frequency sampling regimes (e.g., once a month). CONCLUSIONS: We recommend dBBMMs as a valuable alternative to MCP and KDE methods for reptile VHF telemetry data, for research questions associated with space-use and movement behaviours within the study period: they work under contemporary tracking protocols and provide more stable estimates. We demonstrate for the first time that dBBMMs can be applied confidently to low-resolution tracking data, while improving comparisons across regimes, individuals, and species. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary information accompanies this paper at 10.1186/s40462-020-00229-3.

Distribution update, conservation status and color in life of the rare Amazonian snake, Eutrachelophis papilio Zaher and Prudente 2019 (Serpentes: Xenodontini)

The rare Amazonian snake Eutrachelophis papilio is known from only five individuals, from four localities, belonging to its type-series, the more recent collected over 10 years ago. Here, we expand its distribution and describe its color in life for the first time. We also provide an estimate of its distribution area using the minimum convex polygon method and identify the values of anthropic pressure within its known distribution range with the Human Footprint Index. The new occurrence is located 291 km from the nearest known locality and its distribution is associated with pristine forests. Considering its rarity, and the absence of demographic and biological data, we suggest that the species should be classified as Data Deficient by IUCN criteria. (AU)

Home Range Size and Seasonal Variation in Habitat Use of Aye-Ayes (Daubentonia madagascariensis) in Torotorofotsy, Madagascar.

Madagascar's dramatic climatic fluctuations mean most lemurs adjust behaviors seasonally as resource availability fluctuates. Many lemurs will adopt one of two strategies, a resource maximizer or an area minimizer, when adjusting to seasonal shifts in resource availability. However, it is unknown if and how aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) ranging behavior is influenced by seasonality. We explored whether habitat use changed seasonally. We followed two aye-ayes, an adult male and an adult female, in the undisturbed forest of Torotorofotsy, Madagascar, from April 2012 to December 2017. We used instantaneous focal-animal sampling to collect behavioral data every 5 min and GPS locations every 20 min. We used the minimum convex polygon (MCP) to determine overall home range, and the Brownian bridge movement model (BBMM) to estimate overall and seasonal home range of the female aye-aye from November 2014 to October 2017. We used Wilcoxon signed-rank tests to determine whether there were significant differences in home range sizes between seasons across years and to examine whether there were seasonal differences in height of invertebrate foraging, generalized linear models to assess seasonal differences in travel rates and nesting locations, and χ2 tests to determine whether there were differences in forest strata use when foraging on invertebrates. The male's MCP home range was 2,586 ha, and the female's MCP home range was 765 ha. The seasonal BBMM for the female varied between 443.6 and 1,010.0 ha, though infant rearing appears to have influenced these values. There were no significant differences in seasonal home range, travel rates, nesting locations, or height of invertebrate feeding. However, canopy level invertebrate foraging occurred more often than understory or ground levels. It appears aye-ayes in this undisturbed forest were not influenced by seasonal shifts and had larger home ranges than any previously reported. These findings may indicate that aye-ayes in an undisturbed forest are resource maximizers, closely linked to invertebrate assemblages.

Does Plan B work? Home range estimations from stored on board and transmitted data sets produced by GPS-telemetry in the Colombian Amazon / ¿Funciona el plan B? Estimación de rango de hogar a partir de datos almacenados en instrumentos a bordo de animales y los obtenidos a partir de telemetría satelital de GPS en el Amazonas colombiano

Abstract:Telemetry based on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) makes possible to gather large quantities of information in a very fine scale and work with species that were impossible to study in the past. When working with GPS telemetry, the option of storing data on board could be more desirable than the sole satellite transmitted data, due to the increase in the amount of locations available for analysis. Nonetheless, the uncertainty in the retrieving of the collar unit makes satellite-transmitted technologies something to take into account. Therefore, differences between store-on-board (SoB) and satellite-transmitted (IT) data sets need to be considered. Differences between SoB and IT data collected from two lowland tapirs (Tapirus terrestris), were explored by means of the calculation of home range areas by three different methods: the Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP), the Fixed Kernel Density Estimator (KDE) and the Brownian Bridges (BB). Results showed that SoB and IT data sets for the same individual were similar, with fix ranging from 63 % to 85 % respectively, and 16 m to 17 m horizontal errors. Depending on the total number of locations available for each individual, the home ranges estimated showed differences between 2.7 % and 79.3 %, for the 50 % probability contour and between 9.9 % and 61.8 % for the 95 % probability contour. These differences imply variations in the spatial coincidence of the estimated home ranges. We concluded that the use of IT data is not a good option for the estimation of home range areas if the collar settings have not been designed specifically for this use. Nonetheless, geographical representations of the IT based estimators could be of great help to identify areas of use, besides its assistance to locate the collar for its retrieval at the end of the field season and as a proximate backup when collars disappear. Rev. Biol. Trop. 64 (4): 1441-1450. Epub 2016 December 01.

Resumen:La telemetría basada en los sistemas de geopocisionamiento global (GPS) hace posible recopilar gran cantidad de información a escalas muy finas, y trabajar con especies imposibles de estudiar en el pasado. Al trabajar con telemetría de GPS, la opción de guardar información en la memoria interna del instrumento puede ser más deseable que sólo tener acceso a la información enviada vía satélite, debido a la mayor cantidad de localizaciones disponibles para analizar. No obstante, la incertidumbre de recuperar el collar hace que las tecnología de trasmisión vía satélite deba ser tenida en cuenta. Diferencias entre las bases de datos almacenadas en el collar (SoB) y las trasmitidas vía satélite (IT), recolectadas de dos individuos de Tapir de tierras bajas (Tapirus terrestris), son consideradas, en términos de las áreas de los rangos de hogar calculados con cada uno y mediante el uso de tres metodologías diferentes: Mínimo Polígono Convexo (MCP), Estimador de Densidad de Kernel Fijo (KDE) y los Puentes Brownianos (BB). Las bases de datos SoB e IT son similares, con tasas de acierto de localizaciones que oscilan entre 63 % to 85 % y errores horizontales de 16 m y 17 m respectivamente. Dependiendo del número total de localizaciones disponibles para cada individuo, los rangos de hogar estimados muestran diferencias entre 2.7 % y 79.3 %, para el contorno del 50 % de probabilidades, y entre 9.9 % y 61.8 % para el contorno del 95 % de probabilidades. Estas diferencias implican variaciones en la coincidencia espacial de los rangos de hogar estimados. Concluimos que el uso de la información trasmitida vía satélite no es una buena opción para la estimación de rangos de hogar, si la programción de los collares no ha sido diseñada específicamente para tal fin. Sin embargo, las representaciones geográficas de los estimados a partir de las bases de datos IT pueden ser de gran ayuda para la identificación de áreas de uso, además de su utilidad para la localización y recuperación de collares tras su liberación de los individuos monitoreados y como una base de datos de soporte en caso de pérdida del collar.

Home-range and space use by Didelphis albiventris (Lund 1840) (Marsupialia, Didelphidae) in Mutum Island, Paraná river, Brazil / Área de vida e uso do espaço por Didelphis albiventris (Lund 1840) (Marsupialia, Didelphidae) na ilha Mutum, rio Paraná, Brasil

Home-range is the area used by an animal in its daily activities. Home-range studies provide data on species mating systems and territorial behavior. Our main goal was to estimate the Didelphis albiventris (Lund 1840) home-range in Mutum Island, Paraná River, Brazil. The study was carried out in 2008 from March to October on a 19.20 ha grid. The island is part of the Parana River Islands and Floodlands Federal Environmental Protection Area, with vegetation composed by Alluvial Semideciduous Seasonal Forest in a region of Subtropical Wet climate. The sampling effort was 3,360 traps-night resulting in 152 Didelphis albiventris (Lund 1840) captures. Forty-one Didelphis albiventris (Lund 1840) individuals were captured in 42 capture stations, composed by a trap placed on the floor and another in understory (2 m high). The animals were mostly terrestrial, independently of age or sex. Four females and five males, which were recaptured at least five times, were used to calculate home-range using the minimum convex polygon method. The mean home-range estimate was 2.33 ± 2.32 ha, similar to previous estimates provided by other methods, suggesting that our capture grid area, that was larger than usually applied for mark-capture studies for this species, have not underestimated the home-ranges. Evidences of the relation between individual home-range area and body mass were observed. Home-range overlaps occurred between males, females and males with females; the average overlap was 33.74%, which may be related to a promiscuous mating system, and suggests female territoriality.

Área de vida é a área usada por um animal em suas atividades diárias. Estudos de área de vida oferecem dados sobre os sistemas reprodutivos e comportamento territorial das espécies. Nosso objetivo foi estimar a área de vida de Didelphis albiventris (Lund 1840) na ilha Mutum, no rio Paraná, Brasil. O estudo foi realizado em 2008 de março a outubro em uma grade de 19,20 ha. Esta ilha é parte da área de proteção de ilhas e várzeas do rio Paraná e sua vegetação é composta por floresta estacional semidecidual aluvial sazonal com clima subtropical úmido. O esforço amostral foi de 3.360 armadilhas-noite resultando em 152 capturas de Didelphis albiventris (Lund 1840). Foram capturados 41 indivíduos nas 42 estações compostas por uma armadilha no solo e a dois metros de altura. A maioria dos animais foi capturada no solo, independente de idade ou sexo. Quatro fêmeas e cinco machos foram recapturados pelo menos cinco vezes e foram usados para calcular a área de vida mediante método de polígono mínimo convexo. A área de vida média estimada foi de 2,33 ha ± 2,32, similar às estimativas previamente descritas por outros métodos, sugerindo que o tamanho da grade de captura, maior que a usualmente empregada em estudos de marcação-recaptura com esta espécie, não subestimou as áreas de vida. Evidências da relação entre a área de vida e massa corporal dos indivíduos foram observadas. Sobreposição das áreas de vida (média = 33,74%) ocorreu entre machos, entre fêmeas e de machos com fêmeas, o que pode ser relacionado a um sistema de acasalamento promíscuo e territorialidade de fêmeas.