Ungulate movement in an extreme seasonal environment: year‐round movement patterns of high‐arctic muskoxen
Detailed knowledge on movement behaviour of free‐ranging muskoxen Ovibos moschatus is currently lacking. Quantifying variation in individual movement and the variables driving such patterns is important to understand how they meet their basic requirements and to inform management. Because muskoxen e...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00219 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2981/wlb.00219 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.2981/wlb.00219 |
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crwiley:10.2981/wlb.00219 2024-06-23T07:50:18+00:00 Ungulate movement in an extreme seasonal environment: year‐round movement patterns of high‐arctic muskoxen Schmidt, Niels M. van Beest, Floris M. Mosbacher, Jesper B. Stelvig, Mikkel Hansen, Lars H. Nabe‐Nielsen, Jacob Gr⊘ndahl, Carsten Miljøstyrelsen 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00219 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2981/wlb.00219 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.2981/wlb.00219 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Wildlife Biology volume 22, issue 6, page 253-267 ISSN 1903-220X 1903-220X journal-article 2016 crwiley https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00219 2024-06-13T04:21:52Z Detailed knowledge on movement behaviour of free‐ranging muskoxen Ovibos moschatus is currently lacking. Quantifying variation in individual movement and the variables driving such patterns is important to understand how they meet their basic requirements and to inform management. Because muskoxen exist in nutrient‐poor systems with extreme climatic and seasonal variability, individual movement patterns are expected to be largely dependent on environmental conditions and the seasonal variation therein. We analysed high‐resolution location data of 14 adult female muskoxen roaming around Zackenberg in northeast Greenland (74°28′N, 20°34′W). We assessed the relative importance (Akaike variable weights) of multiple extrinsic conditions in explaining variation in hourly speed, turning angles, and activity. We found that time of day, ambient temperature, and land cover types were the most important covariates explaining variation in fine‐scale movement and activity patterns throughout the year. Movement speeds were consistently lower in land cover types with more dense vegetation. Speed of movement was positively correlated with ambient temperature when the days were long, while negatively related with temperature in periods with few or no hours of daylight. Diurnal peaks in movement and activity patterns were observed most of the year (including mid‐winter months with 24‐h darkness), except during high‐summer (24‐h of daylight), when individual movement and activity remained continuously high. The topographic variation (elevation and slope) explained only a small part of the variation in muskox movement patterns in the areas where the muskoxen were observed. Analyses of displacement patterns revealed a mixture of movement behaviours. We conclude that muskoxen in high‐arctic Greenland adopt a largely nomadic movement behaviour, but do so within a rather small geographical area (app. 5000 km 2 ), and that their movement and activity patterns are largely directed at finding suitable foraging patches and avoiding ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Greenland muskox ovibos moschatus Zackenberg Wiley Online Library Arctic Greenland Wildlife Biology 22 6 253 267 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Detailed knowledge on movement behaviour of free‐ranging muskoxen Ovibos moschatus is currently lacking. Quantifying variation in individual movement and the variables driving such patterns is important to understand how they meet their basic requirements and to inform management. Because muskoxen exist in nutrient‐poor systems with extreme climatic and seasonal variability, individual movement patterns are expected to be largely dependent on environmental conditions and the seasonal variation therein. We analysed high‐resolution location data of 14 adult female muskoxen roaming around Zackenberg in northeast Greenland (74°28′N, 20°34′W). We assessed the relative importance (Akaike variable weights) of multiple extrinsic conditions in explaining variation in hourly speed, turning angles, and activity. We found that time of day, ambient temperature, and land cover types were the most important covariates explaining variation in fine‐scale movement and activity patterns throughout the year. Movement speeds were consistently lower in land cover types with more dense vegetation. Speed of movement was positively correlated with ambient temperature when the days were long, while negatively related with temperature in periods with few or no hours of daylight. Diurnal peaks in movement and activity patterns were observed most of the year (including mid‐winter months with 24‐h darkness), except during high‐summer (24‐h of daylight), when individual movement and activity remained continuously high. The topographic variation (elevation and slope) explained only a small part of the variation in muskox movement patterns in the areas where the muskoxen were observed. Analyses of displacement patterns revealed a mixture of movement behaviours. We conclude that muskoxen in high‐arctic Greenland adopt a largely nomadic movement behaviour, but do so within a rather small geographical area (app. 5000 km 2 ), and that their movement and activity patterns are largely directed at finding suitable foraging patches and avoiding ... |
author2 |
Miljøstyrelsen |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Schmidt, Niels M. van Beest, Floris M. Mosbacher, Jesper B. Stelvig, Mikkel Hansen, Lars H. Nabe‐Nielsen, Jacob Gr⊘ndahl, Carsten |
spellingShingle |
Schmidt, Niels M. van Beest, Floris M. Mosbacher, Jesper B. Stelvig, Mikkel Hansen, Lars H. Nabe‐Nielsen, Jacob Gr⊘ndahl, Carsten Ungulate movement in an extreme seasonal environment: year‐round movement patterns of high‐arctic muskoxen |
author_facet |
Schmidt, Niels M. van Beest, Floris M. Mosbacher, Jesper B. Stelvig, Mikkel Hansen, Lars H. Nabe‐Nielsen, Jacob Gr⊘ndahl, Carsten |
author_sort |
Schmidt, Niels M. |
title |
Ungulate movement in an extreme seasonal environment: year‐round movement patterns of high‐arctic muskoxen |
title_short |
Ungulate movement in an extreme seasonal environment: year‐round movement patterns of high‐arctic muskoxen |
title_full |
Ungulate movement in an extreme seasonal environment: year‐round movement patterns of high‐arctic muskoxen |
title_fullStr |
Ungulate movement in an extreme seasonal environment: year‐round movement patterns of high‐arctic muskoxen |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ungulate movement in an extreme seasonal environment: year‐round movement patterns of high‐arctic muskoxen |
title_sort |
ungulate movement in an extreme seasonal environment: year‐round movement patterns of high‐arctic muskoxen |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00219 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2981/wlb.00219 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.2981/wlb.00219 |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Greenland muskox ovibos moschatus Zackenberg |
genre_facet |
Arctic Greenland muskox ovibos moschatus Zackenberg |
op_source |
Wildlife Biology volume 22, issue 6, page 253-267 ISSN 1903-220X 1903-220X |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00219 |
container_title |
Wildlife Biology |
container_volume |
22 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
253 |
op_container_end_page |
267 |
_version_ |
1802641174035431424 |