Space‐use behaviour of woodland caribou based on a cognitive movement model

• Published in: Journal of Animal Ecology
• Main Authors: Avgar, Tal, Baker, James A., Brown, Glen S., Hagens, Jevon S., Kittle, Andrew M., Mallon, Erin E., McGreer, Madeleine T., Mosser, Anna, Newmaster, Steven G., Patterson, Brent R., Reid, Douglas E. B., Rodgers, Art R., Shuter, Jennifer, Street, Garrett M., Thompson, Ian, Turetsky, Merritt J., Wiebe, Philip A., Fryxell, John M.
• Other Authors: Mysterud, Atle, Canadian Forest Service, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, CNFER, Forest Ecosystem Science Co-operative Inc, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2015
• Subjects: Alces alces; Canis lupus; caribou; Rangifer tarandus
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12357; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2F1365-2656.12357; https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2656.12357

Summary Movement patterns offer a rich source of information on animal behaviour and the ecological significance of landscape attributes. This is especially useful for species occupying remote landscapes where direct behavioural observations are limited. In this study, we fit a mechanistic model of animal cognition and movement to GPS positional data of woodland caribou ( Rangifer tarandus caribou; Gmelin 1788) collected over a wide range of ecological conditions. The model explicitly tracks individual animal informational state over space and time, with resulting parameter estimates that have direct cognitive and ecological meaning. Three biotic landscape attributes were hypothesized to motivate caribou movement: forage abundance (dietary digestible biomass), wolf ( Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758) density and moose ( Alces alces Linnaeus, 1758) habitat. Wolves are the main predator of caribou in this system and moose are their primary prey. Resulting parameter estimates clearly indicated that forage abundance is an important driver of caribou movement patterns, with predator and moose avoidance often having a strong effect, but not for all individuals. From the cognitive perspective, our results support the notion that caribou rely on limited sensory inputs from their surroundings, as well as on long‐term spatial memory, to make informed movement decisions. Our study demonstrates how sensory, memory and motion capacities may interact with ecological fitness covariates to influence movement decisions by free‐ranging animals.