Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou
Abstract Analyses of animal movement data have primarily focused on understanding patterns of space use and the behavioural processes driving them. Here, we analyzed animal movement data to infer components of individual fitness, specifically parturition and neonate survival. We predicted that partu...
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crwiley:10.1002/ece3.785 2024-09-30T14:33:41+00:00 Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou DeMars, Craig A. Auger‐Méthé, Marie Schlägel, Ulrike E. Boutin, Stan 2013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.785 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fece3.785 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.785 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.785 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Ecology and Evolution volume 3, issue 12, page 4149-4160 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 journal-article 2013 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.785 2024-09-05T05:05:00Z Abstract Analyses of animal movement data have primarily focused on understanding patterns of space use and the behavioural processes driving them. Here, we analyzed animal movement data to infer components of individual fitness, specifically parturition and neonate survival. We predicted that parturition and neonate loss events could be identified by sudden and marked changes in female movement patterns. Using GPS radio‐telemetry data from female woodland caribou ( R angifer tarandus caribou ), we developed and tested two novel movement‐based methods for inferring parturition and neonate survival. The first method estimated movement thresholds indicative of parturition and neonate loss from population‐level data then applied these thresholds in a moving‐window analysis on individual time‐series data. The second method used an individual‐based approach that discriminated among three a priori models representing the movement patterns of non‐parturient females, females with surviving offspring, and females losing offspring. The models assumed that step lengths (the distance between successive GPS locations) were exponentially distributed and that abrupt changes in the scale parameter of the exponential distribution were indicative of parturition and offspring loss. Both methods predicted parturition with near certainty (>97% accuracy) and produced appropriate predictions of parturition dates. Prediction of neonate survival was affected by data quality for both methods; however, when using high quality data (i.e., with few missing GPS locations), the individual‐based method performed better, predicting neonate survival status with an accuracy rate of 87%. Understanding ungulate population dynamics often requires estimates of parturition and neonate survival rates. With GPS radio‐collars increasingly being used in research and management of ungulates, our movement‐based methods represent a viable approach for estimating rates of both parameters. Article in Journal/Newspaper caribou Wiley Online Library Ecology and Evolution 3 12 4149 4160 |
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English |
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Abstract Analyses of animal movement data have primarily focused on understanding patterns of space use and the behavioural processes driving them. Here, we analyzed animal movement data to infer components of individual fitness, specifically parturition and neonate survival. We predicted that parturition and neonate loss events could be identified by sudden and marked changes in female movement patterns. Using GPS radio‐telemetry data from female woodland caribou ( R angifer tarandus caribou ), we developed and tested two novel movement‐based methods for inferring parturition and neonate survival. The first method estimated movement thresholds indicative of parturition and neonate loss from population‐level data then applied these thresholds in a moving‐window analysis on individual time‐series data. The second method used an individual‐based approach that discriminated among three a priori models representing the movement patterns of non‐parturient females, females with surviving offspring, and females losing offspring. The models assumed that step lengths (the distance between successive GPS locations) were exponentially distributed and that abrupt changes in the scale parameter of the exponential distribution were indicative of parturition and offspring loss. Both methods predicted parturition with near certainty (>97% accuracy) and produced appropriate predictions of parturition dates. Prediction of neonate survival was affected by data quality for both methods; however, when using high quality data (i.e., with few missing GPS locations), the individual‐based method performed better, predicting neonate survival status with an accuracy rate of 87%. Understanding ungulate population dynamics often requires estimates of parturition and neonate survival rates. With GPS radio‐collars increasingly being used in research and management of ungulates, our movement‐based methods represent a viable approach for estimating rates of both parameters. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
DeMars, Craig A. Auger‐Méthé, Marie Schlägel, Ulrike E. Boutin, Stan |
spellingShingle |
DeMars, Craig A. Auger‐Méthé, Marie Schlägel, Ulrike E. Boutin, Stan Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou |
author_facet |
DeMars, Craig A. Auger‐Méthé, Marie Schlägel, Ulrike E. Boutin, Stan |
author_sort |
DeMars, Craig A. |
title |
Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou |
title_short |
Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou |
title_full |
Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou |
title_fullStr |
Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou |
title_full_unstemmed |
Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou |
title_sort |
inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.785 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fece3.785 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.785 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.785 |
genre |
caribou |
genre_facet |
caribou |
op_source |
Ecology and Evolution volume 3, issue 12, page 4149-4160 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.785 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
3 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
4149 |
op_container_end_page |
4160 |
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1811637499174322176 |