Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies
Many species aggregate in dense colonies. Species-specific spatial patterns provide clues about how colonies are shaped by various (a)biotic factors, including predation, temperature regulation or disease transmission. Using aerial imagery, we examined these patterns in colonies on land of two sympa...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230269 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.230269 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.230269 |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsos.230269 2024-06-02T08:07:48+00:00 Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies Hoekendijk, J. P. A. Grundlehner, A. Brasseur, S. Kellenberger, B. Tuia, D. Aarts, G. Gemini Windpark Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230269 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.230269 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.230269 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Royal Society Open Science volume 10, issue 8 ISSN 2054-5703 journal-article 2023 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230269 2024-05-07T14:16:13Z Many species aggregate in dense colonies. Species-specific spatial patterns provide clues about how colonies are shaped by various (a)biotic factors, including predation, temperature regulation or disease transmission. Using aerial imagery, we examined these patterns in colonies on land of two sympatric seal species: the harbour seal and grey seal. Results show that the density of grey seals on land is twice as high as that of harbour seals. Furthermore, the nearest neighbour distance (NND) of harbour seals (median = 1.06 m) is significantly larger than that of grey seals (median = 0.53 m). Avoidance at small distances (i.e. social distancing) was supported by spatial simulation: when the observed seal locations were shuffled slightly, the frequency of the smallest NNDs (0–25 cm) increased, while the most frequently observed NNDs decreased. As harbour seals are more prone to infectious diseases, we hypothesize that the larger NNDs might be a behavioural response to reduce pathogen transmission. The approach presented here can potentially be used as a practical tool to differentiate between harbour and grey seals in remote sensing applications, particularly in low to medium resolution imagery (e.g. satellite imagery), where morphological characteristics alone are insufficient to differentiate between species. Article in Journal/Newspaper harbour seal The Royal Society Royal Society Open Science 10 8 |
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Open Polar |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Many species aggregate in dense colonies. Species-specific spatial patterns provide clues about how colonies are shaped by various (a)biotic factors, including predation, temperature regulation or disease transmission. Using aerial imagery, we examined these patterns in colonies on land of two sympatric seal species: the harbour seal and grey seal. Results show that the density of grey seals on land is twice as high as that of harbour seals. Furthermore, the nearest neighbour distance (NND) of harbour seals (median = 1.06 m) is significantly larger than that of grey seals (median = 0.53 m). Avoidance at small distances (i.e. social distancing) was supported by spatial simulation: when the observed seal locations were shuffled slightly, the frequency of the smallest NNDs (0–25 cm) increased, while the most frequently observed NNDs decreased. As harbour seals are more prone to infectious diseases, we hypothesize that the larger NNDs might be a behavioural response to reduce pathogen transmission. The approach presented here can potentially be used as a practical tool to differentiate between harbour and grey seals in remote sensing applications, particularly in low to medium resolution imagery (e.g. satellite imagery), where morphological characteristics alone are insufficient to differentiate between species. |
author2 |
Gemini Windpark Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hoekendijk, J. P. A. Grundlehner, A. Brasseur, S. Kellenberger, B. Tuia, D. Aarts, G. |
spellingShingle |
Hoekendijk, J. P. A. Grundlehner, A. Brasseur, S. Kellenberger, B. Tuia, D. Aarts, G. Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies |
author_facet |
Hoekendijk, J. P. A. Grundlehner, A. Brasseur, S. Kellenberger, B. Tuia, D. Aarts, G. |
author_sort |
Hoekendijk, J. P. A. |
title |
Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies |
title_short |
Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies |
title_full |
Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies |
title_fullStr |
Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies |
title_full_unstemmed |
Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies |
title_sort |
stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230269 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.230269 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.230269 |
genre |
harbour seal |
genre_facet |
harbour seal |
op_source |
Royal Society Open Science volume 10, issue 8 ISSN 2054-5703 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230269 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
8 |
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1800752925699473408 |