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No place like home? A test of the natal habitat-biased dispersal hypothesis in Scandinavian wolves

Natal dispersal is an important mechanism for the viability of populations. The influence of local conditions or experience gained in the natal habitat could improve fitness if dispersing individuals settle in an area with similar habitat characteristics. This process, defined as ‘natal habitat-bias...

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Autores principales: Sanz-Pérez, Ana, Ordiz, Andrés, Sand, Håkan, Swenson, Jon E., Wabakken, Petter, Wikenros, Camilla, Zimmermann, Barbara, Åkesson, Mikael, Milleret, Cyril
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6304128/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30662744
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.181379
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author Sanz-Pérez, Ana
Ordiz, Andrés
Sand, Håkan
Swenson, Jon E.
Wabakken, Petter
Wikenros, Camilla
Zimmermann, Barbara
Åkesson, Mikael
Milleret, Cyril
author_facet Sanz-Pérez, Ana
Ordiz, Andrés
Sand, Håkan
Swenson, Jon E.
Wabakken, Petter
Wikenros, Camilla
Zimmermann, Barbara
Åkesson, Mikael
Milleret, Cyril
author_sort Sanz-Pérez, Ana
collection PubMed
description Natal dispersal is an important mechanism for the viability of populations. The influence of local conditions or experience gained in the natal habitat could improve fitness if dispersing individuals settle in an area with similar habitat characteristics. This process, defined as ‘natal habitat-biased dispersal’ (NHBD), has been used to explain distribution patterns in large carnivores, but actual studies evaluating it are rare. We tested whether grey wolf Canis lupus territory establishment was influenced by the habitat characteristics of the natal territory using the long-term monitoring of the Scandinavian wolf population. We paired the locations of natal and established territories, accounted for available habitats along the dispersing route, and compared their habitat characteristics for 271 wolves during 1998–2012. Wolves with the shortest dispersal distances established in natal-like habitat types more than expected by chance, whereas wolves that dispersed longer distances did not show NHBD. The pattern was consistent for male and female wolves, with females showing more NHBD than males. Chances to detect NHBD increased with the size of habitat defined as available. This highlights the importance of considering the biological characteristics of the studied species when defining habitat availability. Our methodological approach can prove useful to inform conservation and management to identify habitats to be selected by reintroduced or naturally expanding populations.
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spelling pubmed-63041282019-01-18 No place like home? A test of the natal habitat-biased dispersal hypothesis in Scandinavian wolves Sanz-Pérez, Ana Ordiz, Andrés Sand, Håkan Swenson, Jon E. Wabakken, Petter Wikenros, Camilla Zimmermann, Barbara Åkesson, Mikael Milleret, Cyril R Soc Open Sci Biology (Whole Organism) Natal dispersal is an important mechanism for the viability of populations. The influence of local conditions or experience gained in the natal habitat could improve fitness if dispersing individuals settle in an area with similar habitat characteristics. This process, defined as ‘natal habitat-biased dispersal’ (NHBD), has been used to explain distribution patterns in large carnivores, but actual studies evaluating it are rare. We tested whether grey wolf Canis lupus territory establishment was influenced by the habitat characteristics of the natal territory using the long-term monitoring of the Scandinavian wolf population. We paired the locations of natal and established territories, accounted for available habitats along the dispersing route, and compared their habitat characteristics for 271 wolves during 1998–2012. Wolves with the shortest dispersal distances established in natal-like habitat types more than expected by chance, whereas wolves that dispersed longer distances did not show NHBD. The pattern was consistent for male and female wolves, with females showing more NHBD than males. Chances to detect NHBD increased with the size of habitat defined as available. This highlights the importance of considering the biological characteristics of the studied species when defining habitat availability. Our methodological approach can prove useful to inform conservation and management to identify habitats to be selected by reintroduced or naturally expanding populations. The Royal Society 2018-12-12 /pmc/articles/PMC6304128/ /pubmed/30662744 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.181379 Text en © 2018 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Biology (Whole Organism)
Sanz-Pérez, Ana
Ordiz, Andrés
Sand, Håkan
Swenson, Jon E.
Wabakken, Petter
Wikenros, Camilla
Zimmermann, Barbara
Åkesson, Mikael
Milleret, Cyril
No place like home? A test of the natal habitat-biased dispersal hypothesis in Scandinavian wolves
title No place like home? A test of the natal habitat-biased dispersal hypothesis in Scandinavian wolves
title_full No place like home? A test of the natal habitat-biased dispersal hypothesis in Scandinavian wolves
title_fullStr No place like home? A test of the natal habitat-biased dispersal hypothesis in Scandinavian wolves
title_full_unstemmed No place like home? A test of the natal habitat-biased dispersal hypothesis in Scandinavian wolves
title_short No place like home? A test of the natal habitat-biased dispersal hypothesis in Scandinavian wolves
title_sort no place like home? a test of the natal habitat-biased dispersal hypothesis in scandinavian wolves
topic Biology (Whole Organism)
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6304128/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30662744
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.181379
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