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Coping with Spatial Heterogeneity and Temporal Variability in Resources and Risks: Adaptive Movement Behaviour by a Large Grazing Herbivore

Movement is a key mean for mobile species to cope with heterogeneous environments. While in herbivorous mammals large-scale migration has been widely investigated, fine-scale movement responses to local variations in resources and predation risk remain much less studied, especially in savannah envir...

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Autores principales: Martin, Jodie, Benhamou, Simon, Yoganand, K., Owen-Smith, Norman
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4342283/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25719494
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118461
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author Martin, Jodie
Benhamou, Simon
Yoganand, K.
Owen-Smith, Norman
author_facet Martin, Jodie
Benhamou, Simon
Yoganand, K.
Owen-Smith, Norman
author_sort Martin, Jodie
collection PubMed
description Movement is a key mean for mobile species to cope with heterogeneous environments. While in herbivorous mammals large-scale migration has been widely investigated, fine-scale movement responses to local variations in resources and predation risk remain much less studied, especially in savannah environments. We developed a novel approach based on complementary movement metrics (residence time, frequency of visits and regularity of visits) to relate movement patterns of a savannah grazer, the blue wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus, to fine-scale variations in food availability, predation risk and water availability in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Wildebeests spent more time in grazing lawns where the grass is of higher quality but shorter than in seep zones, where the grass is of lower quality but more abundant. Although the daily distances moved were longer during the wet season compared to the dry season, the daily net displacement was lower, and the residence time higher, indicating a more frequent occurrence of area-concentred searching. In contrast, during the late dry season the foraging sessions were more fragmented and wildebeests moved more frequently between foraging areas. Surprisingly, predation risk appeared to be the second factor, after water availability, influencing movement during the dry season, when resources are limiting and thus expected to influence movement more. Our approach, using complementary analyses of different movement metrics, provided an integrated view of changes in individual movement with varying environmental conditions and predation risk. It makes it possible to highlight the adaptive behavioral decisions made by wildebeest to cope with unpredictable environmental variations and provides insights for population conservation.
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spelling pubmed-43422832015-03-04 Coping with Spatial Heterogeneity and Temporal Variability in Resources and Risks: Adaptive Movement Behaviour by a Large Grazing Herbivore Martin, Jodie Benhamou, Simon Yoganand, K. Owen-Smith, Norman PLoS One Research Article Movement is a key mean for mobile species to cope with heterogeneous environments. While in herbivorous mammals large-scale migration has been widely investigated, fine-scale movement responses to local variations in resources and predation risk remain much less studied, especially in savannah environments. We developed a novel approach based on complementary movement metrics (residence time, frequency of visits and regularity of visits) to relate movement patterns of a savannah grazer, the blue wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus, to fine-scale variations in food availability, predation risk and water availability in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Wildebeests spent more time in grazing lawns where the grass is of higher quality but shorter than in seep zones, where the grass is of lower quality but more abundant. Although the daily distances moved were longer during the wet season compared to the dry season, the daily net displacement was lower, and the residence time higher, indicating a more frequent occurrence of area-concentred searching. In contrast, during the late dry season the foraging sessions were more fragmented and wildebeests moved more frequently between foraging areas. Surprisingly, predation risk appeared to be the second factor, after water availability, influencing movement during the dry season, when resources are limiting and thus expected to influence movement more. Our approach, using complementary analyses of different movement metrics, provided an integrated view of changes in individual movement with varying environmental conditions and predation risk. It makes it possible to highlight the adaptive behavioral decisions made by wildebeest to cope with unpredictable environmental variations and provides insights for population conservation. Public Library of Science 2015-02-26 /pmc/articles/PMC4342283/ /pubmed/25719494 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118461 Text en © 2015 Martin 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
Martin, Jodie
Benhamou, Simon
Yoganand, K.
Owen-Smith, Norman
Coping with Spatial Heterogeneity and Temporal Variability in Resources and Risks: Adaptive Movement Behaviour by a Large Grazing Herbivore
title Coping with Spatial Heterogeneity and Temporal Variability in Resources and Risks: Adaptive Movement Behaviour by a Large Grazing Herbivore
title_full Coping with Spatial Heterogeneity and Temporal Variability in Resources and Risks: Adaptive Movement Behaviour by a Large Grazing Herbivore
title_fullStr Coping with Spatial Heterogeneity and Temporal Variability in Resources and Risks: Adaptive Movement Behaviour by a Large Grazing Herbivore
title_full_unstemmed Coping with Spatial Heterogeneity and Temporal Variability in Resources and Risks: Adaptive Movement Behaviour by a Large Grazing Herbivore
title_short Coping with Spatial Heterogeneity and Temporal Variability in Resources and Risks: Adaptive Movement Behaviour by a Large Grazing Herbivore
title_sort coping with spatial heterogeneity and temporal variability in resources and risks: adaptive movement behaviour by a large grazing herbivore
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4342283/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25719494
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118461
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