Big data analyses reveal patterns and drivers of the movements of southern elephant seals

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Rodríguez, Jorge P., Fernández-Gracia, Juan, Thums, Michele, Hindell, Mark A., Sequeira, Ana M. M., Meekan, Mark G., Costa, Daniel P., Guinet, Christophe, Harcourt, Robert G., Mcmahon, Clive R., Muelbert, Monica, Duarte, Carlos M., Eguíluz, Víctor M.
• Other Authors: Instituto de Fısica Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos IFISC (CSIC-UIB), Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB), Department of Epidemiology, Chan School of Public Health, Australian Institute of Marine Science Perth (AIMS Perth), Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), University of Tasmania Hobart, Australia (UTAS), IOMRC and The UWA Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia (UWA), Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Santa Cruz, University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC), University of California-University of California, Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC), Université de La Rochelle (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Macquarie University, University of Sydney Institute of Marine Science (USIMS), The University of Sydney, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Red Sea Research Centre (RSRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2017
• Subjects: Scientific data; Animal migration; Statistical physics; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Elephant Seals; Mirounga leonina; Southern Elephant Seals
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01500421; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-00165-0

International audience The growing number of large databases of animal tracking provides an opportunity for analyses ofmovement patterns at the scales of populations and even species. We used analytical approaches,developed to cope with “big data”, that require no ‘a priori’ assumptions about the behaviour of thetarget agents, to analyse a pooled tracking dataset of 272 elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) in theSouthern Ocean, that was comprised of >500,000 location estimates collected over more than adecade. Our analyses showed that the displacements of these seals were described by a truncatedpower law distribution across several spatial and temporal scales, with a clear signature of directedmovement. This pattern was evident when analysing the aggregated tracks despite a wide diversity ofindividual trajectories. We also identified marine provinces that described the migratory and foraginghabitats of these seals. Our analysis provides evidence for the presence of intrinsic drivers of movement,such as memory, that cannot be detected using common models of movement behaviour. These resultshighlight the potential for “big data” techniques to provide new insights into movement behaviourwhen applied to large datasets of animal tracking.