Cargando…

Going underground: short- and long-term movements may reveal the fossorial spatial ecology of an amphisbaenian

BACKGROUND: The movement and spatial ecology of an animal depends on its morphological and functional adaptations to its environment. In fossorial animals, adaptations to the underground life help to face peculiar ecological challenges, very different from those of epigeal species, but may constrain...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Martín, José, Ortega, Jesús, García-Roa, Roberto, Jiménez-Robles, Octavio, Rodríguez-Ruiz, Gonzalo, Recio, Pablo, Cuervo, José Javier
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7988982/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33757594
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-021-00253-x
_version_ 1783668872063221760
author Martín, José
Ortega, Jesús
García-Roa, Roberto
Jiménez-Robles, Octavio
Rodríguez-Ruiz, Gonzalo
Recio, Pablo
Cuervo, José Javier
author_facet Martín, José
Ortega, Jesús
García-Roa, Roberto
Jiménez-Robles, Octavio
Rodríguez-Ruiz, Gonzalo
Recio, Pablo
Cuervo, José Javier
author_sort Martín, José
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The movement and spatial ecology of an animal depends on its morphological and functional adaptations to its environment. In fossorial animals, adaptations to the underground life help to face peculiar ecological challenges, very different from those of epigeal species, but may constrain their movement ability. METHODS: We made a long-term capture-recapture study of the strictly fossorial amphisbaenian reptile Trogonophis wiegmanni to analyze its long-term movement patterns. We also used passive integrated transponder (PIT) telemetry to detect and follow undisturbed individuals underground, obtaining data of their short-term movement patterns. RESULTS: Amphisbaenians showed a high site fidelity, moving short distances and over small areas, and spending some days without any noticeable movement, even under favorable conditions. We also found differences in movements between sexes and age classes. CONCLUSIONS: This movement and spatial strategy can be related to the energetic constrains of underground burrowing, or to the low metabolic requirements of fossorial reptiles, as distances and areas covered were much smaller than for epigeal reptiles of similar size. Individual differences probably reflect differential reproductive and social requirements of males and females, and that younger individuals might show more floating behavior until they can settle in a territory. This study is a rare example describing the movement ecology of a fossorial species and may contribute to the general understanding of the factors that affect space use and movement decisions in animals.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7988982
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-79889822021-03-25 Going underground: short- and long-term movements may reveal the fossorial spatial ecology of an amphisbaenian Martín, José Ortega, Jesús García-Roa, Roberto Jiménez-Robles, Octavio Rodríguez-Ruiz, Gonzalo Recio, Pablo Cuervo, José Javier Mov Ecol Research BACKGROUND: The movement and spatial ecology of an animal depends on its morphological and functional adaptations to its environment. In fossorial animals, adaptations to the underground life help to face peculiar ecological challenges, very different from those of epigeal species, but may constrain their movement ability. METHODS: We made a long-term capture-recapture study of the strictly fossorial amphisbaenian reptile Trogonophis wiegmanni to analyze its long-term movement patterns. We also used passive integrated transponder (PIT) telemetry to detect and follow undisturbed individuals underground, obtaining data of their short-term movement patterns. RESULTS: Amphisbaenians showed a high site fidelity, moving short distances and over small areas, and spending some days without any noticeable movement, even under favorable conditions. We also found differences in movements between sexes and age classes. CONCLUSIONS: This movement and spatial strategy can be related to the energetic constrains of underground burrowing, or to the low metabolic requirements of fossorial reptiles, as distances and areas covered were much smaller than for epigeal reptiles of similar size. Individual differences probably reflect differential reproductive and social requirements of males and females, and that younger individuals might show more floating behavior until they can settle in a territory. This study is a rare example describing the movement ecology of a fossorial species and may contribute to the general understanding of the factors that affect space use and movement decisions in animals. BioMed Central 2021-03-23 /pmc/articles/PMC7988982/ /pubmed/33757594 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-021-00253-x Text en © The Author(s) 2021 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Martín, José
Ortega, Jesús
García-Roa, Roberto
Jiménez-Robles, Octavio
Rodríguez-Ruiz, Gonzalo
Recio, Pablo
Cuervo, José Javier
Going underground: short- and long-term movements may reveal the fossorial spatial ecology of an amphisbaenian
title Going underground: short- and long-term movements may reveal the fossorial spatial ecology of an amphisbaenian
title_full Going underground: short- and long-term movements may reveal the fossorial spatial ecology of an amphisbaenian
title_fullStr Going underground: short- and long-term movements may reveal the fossorial spatial ecology of an amphisbaenian
title_full_unstemmed Going underground: short- and long-term movements may reveal the fossorial spatial ecology of an amphisbaenian
title_short Going underground: short- and long-term movements may reveal the fossorial spatial ecology of an amphisbaenian
title_sort going underground: short- and long-term movements may reveal the fossorial spatial ecology of an amphisbaenian
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7988982/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33757594
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-021-00253-x
work_keys_str_mv AT martinjose goingundergroundshortandlongtermmovementsmayrevealthefossorialspatialecologyofanamphisbaenian
AT ortegajesus goingundergroundshortandlongtermmovementsmayrevealthefossorialspatialecologyofanamphisbaenian
AT garciaroaroberto goingundergroundshortandlongtermmovementsmayrevealthefossorialspatialecologyofanamphisbaenian
AT jimenezroblesoctavio goingundergroundshortandlongtermmovementsmayrevealthefossorialspatialecologyofanamphisbaenian
AT rodriguezruizgonzalo goingundergroundshortandlongtermmovementsmayrevealthefossorialspatialecologyofanamphisbaenian
AT reciopablo goingundergroundshortandlongtermmovementsmayrevealthefossorialspatialecologyofanamphisbaenian
AT cuervojosejavier goingundergroundshortandlongtermmovementsmayrevealthefossorialspatialecologyofanamphisbaenian