Annual movement strategy predicts within-season space use by moose.

Abstrakt

The heterogeneity of resource availability shapes animal movements at different spatio-temporal scales. Given that movements at various scales are assumed to be linked, the space use of temperate ungulates within seasonal ranges (winter, summer) should be related to their movement patterns at the annual scale. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the level of stationarity of moose (Alces alces) within their seasonal ranges and to link annual movement patterns to within-season space use. We analysed the ranging behaviour of 32 moose fitted with GPS collars from two study areas in Eastern Poland, where at the annual scale a fraction of individuals migrate between summer and winter ranges (partial migration). Our results revealed that moose stationarity within seasonal home ranges expressed remarkable variation. The probability of moose stationarity within seasonal ranges was significantly higher (by 23%), and the mean home range size tended to be lower (9.7 km2) among individuals that seasonally migrated than among non-migratory moose (14.3 km2). In addition, we found that (i) in summer, moose were significantly more stationary (by 19%) and exhibited a smaller mean home range size than in winter (9.0 and 15.9 km2, respectively) and (ii) the mean seasonal home range size of males (19.6 km2) was remarkably greater than that of females (9.6 km2). Given the significant link between annual and seasonal scales of animal movements, any environmental change (e.g. climate warming) affecting an animal’s annual movement strategy could alter within-season animal space use and presumably individual fitness.

Autorzy

Tomasz Borowik
Tomasz Borowik
Rafał Kowalczyk
Rafał Kowalczyk
Norbert Duda
Norbert Duda
Mirosław Ratkiewicz
Mirosław Ratkiewicz
artykuł
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY
Angielski
2021
75
8
119
otwarte czasopismo
CC BY 4.0 Uznanie autorstwa 4.0
ostateczna wersja opublikowana
w momencie opublikowania
2021-08-12
100
2,944
0
2