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Group Dynamics and Landscape Features Constrain the Exploration of Herds in Fusion-Fission Societies: The Case of European Roe Deer

Despite the large number of movement studies, the constraints that grouping imposes on movement decisions remain essentially unexplored, even for highly social species. Such constraints could be key, however, to understanding the dynamics and spatial organisation of species living in group fusion-fi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Pays, Olivier, Fortin, Daniel, Gassani, Jean, Duchesne, Jean
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3316705/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22479652
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0034678
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author Pays, Olivier
Fortin, Daniel
Gassani, Jean
Duchesne, Jean
author_facet Pays, Olivier
Fortin, Daniel
Gassani, Jean
Duchesne, Jean
author_sort Pays, Olivier
collection PubMed
description Despite the large number of movement studies, the constraints that grouping imposes on movement decisions remain essentially unexplored, even for highly social species. Such constraints could be key, however, to understanding the dynamics and spatial organisation of species living in group fusion-fission systems. We investigated the winter movements (speed and diffusion coefficient) of groups of free-ranging roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), in an agricultural landscape characterised by a mosaic of food and foodless patches. Most groups were short-lived units that merged and split up frequently during the course of a day. Deer groups decreased their speed and diffusion rate in areas where food patches were abundant, as well as when travelling close to main roads and crest lines and far from forests. While accounting for these behavioural adjustments to habitat features, our study revealed some constraints imposed by group foraging: large groups reached the limit of their diffusion rate faster than small groups. The ability of individuals to move rapidly to new foraging locations following patch depression thus decreases with group size. Our results highlight the importance of considering both habitat heterogeneity and group dynamics when predicting the movements of individuals in group fusion-fission societies. Further, we provide empirical evidence that group cohesion can restrain movement and, therefore, the speed at which group members can explore their environment. When maintaining cohesion reduces foraging gains because of movement constraints, leaving the group may become a fitness-rewarding decision, especially when individuals can join other groups located nearby, which would tend to maintain highly dynamical group fusion-fission systems. Our findings also provide the basis for new hypotheses explaining a broad range of ecological patterns, such as the broader diet and longer residency time reported for larger herbivore groups.
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spelling pubmed-33167052012-04-04 Group Dynamics and Landscape Features Constrain the Exploration of Herds in Fusion-Fission Societies: The Case of European Roe Deer Pays, Olivier Fortin, Daniel Gassani, Jean Duchesne, Jean PLoS One Research Article Despite the large number of movement studies, the constraints that grouping imposes on movement decisions remain essentially unexplored, even for highly social species. Such constraints could be key, however, to understanding the dynamics and spatial organisation of species living in group fusion-fission systems. We investigated the winter movements (speed and diffusion coefficient) of groups of free-ranging roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), in an agricultural landscape characterised by a mosaic of food and foodless patches. Most groups were short-lived units that merged and split up frequently during the course of a day. Deer groups decreased their speed and diffusion rate in areas where food patches were abundant, as well as when travelling close to main roads and crest lines and far from forests. While accounting for these behavioural adjustments to habitat features, our study revealed some constraints imposed by group foraging: large groups reached the limit of their diffusion rate faster than small groups. The ability of individuals to move rapidly to new foraging locations following patch depression thus decreases with group size. Our results highlight the importance of considering both habitat heterogeneity and group dynamics when predicting the movements of individuals in group fusion-fission societies. Further, we provide empirical evidence that group cohesion can restrain movement and, therefore, the speed at which group members can explore their environment. When maintaining cohesion reduces foraging gains because of movement constraints, leaving the group may become a fitness-rewarding decision, especially when individuals can join other groups located nearby, which would tend to maintain highly dynamical group fusion-fission systems. Our findings also provide the basis for new hypotheses explaining a broad range of ecological patterns, such as the broader diet and longer residency time reported for larger herbivore groups. Public Library of Science 2012-03-30 /pmc/articles/PMC3316705/ /pubmed/22479652 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0034678 Text en Pays et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Pays, Olivier
Fortin, Daniel
Gassani, Jean
Duchesne, Jean
Group Dynamics and Landscape Features Constrain the Exploration of Herds in Fusion-Fission Societies: The Case of European Roe Deer
title Group Dynamics and Landscape Features Constrain the Exploration of Herds in Fusion-Fission Societies: The Case of European Roe Deer
title_full Group Dynamics and Landscape Features Constrain the Exploration of Herds in Fusion-Fission Societies: The Case of European Roe Deer
title_fullStr Group Dynamics and Landscape Features Constrain the Exploration of Herds in Fusion-Fission Societies: The Case of European Roe Deer
title_full_unstemmed Group Dynamics and Landscape Features Constrain the Exploration of Herds in Fusion-Fission Societies: The Case of European Roe Deer
title_short Group Dynamics and Landscape Features Constrain the Exploration of Herds in Fusion-Fission Societies: The Case of European Roe Deer
title_sort group dynamics and landscape features constrain the exploration of herds in fusion-fission societies: the case of european roe deer
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3316705/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22479652
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0034678
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