Data from: Spatial–social familiarity complements the spatial–social interface: evidence from Yellowstone bison ...

• Main Authors: Merkle, Jerod, Poulin, Marie-Pier, Caldwell, Molly, Laforge, Michel, Scholle, Anne, Verzuh, Tana, Geremia, Chris
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2024
• Subjects: FOS: Biological sciences; Bison bison; movement; past experience; Memory; sociality; habitat selection; Bison bison bison; Plains Bison
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pzgmsbcws; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.pzgmsbcws

This dataset can be used to reproduce the results from Merkle et al. 2024, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. The abstract of that study is as follows. Social animals make behavioural decisions based on local habitat and conspecifics, as well as memoriszed past experience (i.e., ‘familiarity’) with habitat and conspecifics. Here, we develop a conceptual and empirical understanding of how spatial and social familiarity fit within the spatial-–social interface – —a novel framework integrating the spatial and social components of animal behaviour. We conducted a multi-scale analysis of the movements of GPS-collared plains bison (Bison bison, n = 66) residing in and around Yellowstone National Park, USA. We found that both spatial and social familiarity mediate how individuals respond to their spatial and social environments. For instance, individuals with high spatial familiarity rely on their own knowledge as opposed to their conspecifics’, and individuals with high social familiarity rely more ... : This dataset is derived from GPS collar data from 66 adult female bison in Yellowstone National Park (2009-2020) and herbaceous biomass and tree cover information from the Rangeland Analysis Platform. Details of the analyses can be found in Merkle et al. 2024, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. ...