Analysis of central place foraging behaviour of wolves using hidden Markov models
Abstract The foraging movement behaviour of grey wolves ( Canis lupus ) is unique in summer, when the focus of breeding wolves is on taking care of new‐born offspring. In this study, we analysed the movement tracks of nine radio‐collared wolves during their pup‐rearing season. The wolves lived in th...
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crwiley:10.1111/eth.13106 2024-09-15T18:01:24+00:00 Analysis of central place foraging behaviour of wolves using hidden Markov models Ylitalo, Anna‐Kaisa Heikkinen, Juha Kojola, Ilpo Academy of Finland Maa- ja MetsätalousministeriÖ 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/eth.13106 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/eth.13106 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/eth.13106 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ethology volume 127, issue 2, page 145-157 ISSN 0179-1613 1439-0310 journal-article 2020 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13106 2024-07-09T04:16:51Z Abstract The foraging movement behaviour of grey wolves ( Canis lupus ) is unique in summer, when the focus of breeding wolves is on taking care of new‐born offspring. In this study, we analysed the movement tracks of nine radio‐collared wolves during their pup‐rearing season. The wolves lived in the boreal zone in Finland. Our interest was in analysing the foraging trips of wolves from the den site, which serves as the central place of the pack in summer. Based on the information on spatial relocations and time of the day, the movement tracks of the collared wolves were split into segments using hidden Markov models (HMM). Those segments were considered to be produced by different movement behaviour modes that were not observed. We first split the movement tracks of the wolves into separate foraging trips using a two‐state HMM and further extracted the different movement modes with a four‐state HMM. The modes were interpreted as rest, moderate activity, homing to the den site and fast movement for other purposes, such as leaving the den. Our analysis showed that, for most of the individuals, the movement during homing was fastest and most persistent. This research highlights the foraging behaviour of wolves during the pup‐rearing season, which has gained less attention than the nomadic behaviour outside of this season. Our study showed how cyclic foraging trips can be divided into behavioural phases using HMMs, and how these behaviours appear in different times of the day. These results have potential uses, for instance, when studying the habitat requirements and usage or assessing the risk of human–wildlife conflicts. Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus Wiley Online Library Ethology 127 2 145 157 |
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Wiley Online Library |
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language |
English |
description |
Abstract The foraging movement behaviour of grey wolves ( Canis lupus ) is unique in summer, when the focus of breeding wolves is on taking care of new‐born offspring. In this study, we analysed the movement tracks of nine radio‐collared wolves during their pup‐rearing season. The wolves lived in the boreal zone in Finland. Our interest was in analysing the foraging trips of wolves from the den site, which serves as the central place of the pack in summer. Based on the information on spatial relocations and time of the day, the movement tracks of the collared wolves were split into segments using hidden Markov models (HMM). Those segments were considered to be produced by different movement behaviour modes that were not observed. We first split the movement tracks of the wolves into separate foraging trips using a two‐state HMM and further extracted the different movement modes with a four‐state HMM. The modes were interpreted as rest, moderate activity, homing to the den site and fast movement for other purposes, such as leaving the den. Our analysis showed that, for most of the individuals, the movement during homing was fastest and most persistent. This research highlights the foraging behaviour of wolves during the pup‐rearing season, which has gained less attention than the nomadic behaviour outside of this season. Our study showed how cyclic foraging trips can be divided into behavioural phases using HMMs, and how these behaviours appear in different times of the day. These results have potential uses, for instance, when studying the habitat requirements and usage or assessing the risk of human–wildlife conflicts. |
author2 |
Academy of Finland Maa- ja MetsätalousministeriÖ |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ylitalo, Anna‐Kaisa Heikkinen, Juha Kojola, Ilpo |
spellingShingle |
Ylitalo, Anna‐Kaisa Heikkinen, Juha Kojola, Ilpo Analysis of central place foraging behaviour of wolves using hidden Markov models |
author_facet |
Ylitalo, Anna‐Kaisa Heikkinen, Juha Kojola, Ilpo |
author_sort |
Ylitalo, Anna‐Kaisa |
title |
Analysis of central place foraging behaviour of wolves using hidden Markov models |
title_short |
Analysis of central place foraging behaviour of wolves using hidden Markov models |
title_full |
Analysis of central place foraging behaviour of wolves using hidden Markov models |
title_fullStr |
Analysis of central place foraging behaviour of wolves using hidden Markov models |
title_full_unstemmed |
Analysis of central place foraging behaviour of wolves using hidden Markov models |
title_sort |
analysis of central place foraging behaviour of wolves using hidden markov models |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/eth.13106 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/eth.13106 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/eth.13106 |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_source |
Ethology volume 127, issue 2, page 145-157 ISSN 0179-1613 1439-0310 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13106 |
container_title |
Ethology |
container_volume |
127 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
145 |
op_container_end_page |
157 |
_version_ |
1810438552719196160 |