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Stable seasonal migration patterns in giant pandas

A critical function of animal movement is to maximize access to essential resources in temporally fluctuating and spatially heterogeneous environments. Seasonally mediated resource fluctuations may influence animal movements, enabling them to track changing resource distributions, resulting in annua...

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Autores principales: Wang, Meng, Nie, Yong-Gang, Swaisgood, Ronald R., Wei, Wei, Zhou, Wen-Liang, Zhang, Ze-Jun, Wang, Gui-Ming, Wei, Fu-Wen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Science Press 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10083218/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36849789
http://dx.doi.org/10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2022.421
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author Wang, Meng
Nie, Yong-Gang
Swaisgood, Ronald R.
Wei, Wei
Zhou, Wen-Liang
Zhang, Ze-Jun
Wang, Gui-Ming
Wei, Fu-Wen
author_facet Wang, Meng
Nie, Yong-Gang
Swaisgood, Ronald R.
Wei, Wei
Zhou, Wen-Liang
Zhang, Ze-Jun
Wang, Gui-Ming
Wei, Fu-Wen
author_sort Wang, Meng
collection PubMed
description A critical function of animal movement is to maximize access to essential resources in temporally fluctuating and spatially heterogeneous environments. Seasonally mediated resource fluctuations may influence animal movements, enabling them to track changing resource distributions, resulting in annual migration patterns. The conservation-dependent giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) displays seasonal movement patterns; however, the key factor driving these seasonal migration patterns remains poorly understood. Here, we used GPS tracking collars to monitor the movements of six giant pandas over a 12-year period across different elevations, and performed statistical analysis of seasonal migration directions, routes, habitat revisitation, home range overlap, first arrival events, and stability. Our results revealed a compelling pattern of seasonal migrations that facilitated the ability of the pandas to forage at the appropriate time and place to maximize nutritional intake. Our results indicated that pandas utilize spatial memory to locate reliable food resources, as evidenced by their annual return to the same or similar winter and summer home ranges and the consistently maintained percentage of home range overlap. These novel insights into giant panda foraging and movement ecology not only enhance our understanding of its ability to adapt to nutritionally poor dietary resources but also provide important information for the development of resource utilization-based protection and management strategies.
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spelling pubmed-100832182023-04-11 Stable seasonal migration patterns in giant pandas Wang, Meng Nie, Yong-Gang Swaisgood, Ronald R. Wei, Wei Zhou, Wen-Liang Zhang, Ze-Jun Wang, Gui-Ming Wei, Fu-Wen Zool Res Article A critical function of animal movement is to maximize access to essential resources in temporally fluctuating and spatially heterogeneous environments. Seasonally mediated resource fluctuations may influence animal movements, enabling them to track changing resource distributions, resulting in annual migration patterns. The conservation-dependent giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) displays seasonal movement patterns; however, the key factor driving these seasonal migration patterns remains poorly understood. Here, we used GPS tracking collars to monitor the movements of six giant pandas over a 12-year period across different elevations, and performed statistical analysis of seasonal migration directions, routes, habitat revisitation, home range overlap, first arrival events, and stability. Our results revealed a compelling pattern of seasonal migrations that facilitated the ability of the pandas to forage at the appropriate time and place to maximize nutritional intake. Our results indicated that pandas utilize spatial memory to locate reliable food resources, as evidenced by their annual return to the same or similar winter and summer home ranges and the consistently maintained percentage of home range overlap. These novel insights into giant panda foraging and movement ecology not only enhance our understanding of its ability to adapt to nutritionally poor dietary resources but also provide important information for the development of resource utilization-based protection and management strategies. Science Press 2023-03-18 /pmc/articles/PMC10083218/ /pubmed/36849789 http://dx.doi.org/10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2022.421 Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Article
Wang, Meng
Nie, Yong-Gang
Swaisgood, Ronald R.
Wei, Wei
Zhou, Wen-Liang
Zhang, Ze-Jun
Wang, Gui-Ming
Wei, Fu-Wen
Stable seasonal migration patterns in giant pandas
title Stable seasonal migration patterns in giant pandas
title_full Stable seasonal migration patterns in giant pandas
title_fullStr Stable seasonal migration patterns in giant pandas
title_full_unstemmed Stable seasonal migration patterns in giant pandas
title_short Stable seasonal migration patterns in giant pandas
title_sort stable seasonal migration patterns in giant pandas
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10083218/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36849789
http://dx.doi.org/10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2022.421
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