Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou
Analyses of animal movement data have primarily focused on understanding patterns of space use and the behavioural processes driving them. Here, we analyzed animal movement data to infer components of individual fitness, specifically parturition and neonate survival. We predicted that parturition an...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3853560 2023-05-15T15:53:30+02:00 Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou DeMars, Craig A Auger-Méthé, Marie Schlägel, Ulrike E Boutin, Stan 2013-10 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3853560 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24324866 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.785 en eng Blackwell Publishing Ltd http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3853560 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24324866 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.785 © 2013 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Re-use of this article is permitted in accordance with the Creative Commons Deed, Attribution 2.5, which does not permit commercial exploitation. CC-BY Original Research Text 2013 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.785 2013-12-15T01:39:36Z Analyses of animal movement data have primarily focused on understanding patterns of space use and the behavioural processes driving them. Here, we analyzed animal movement data to infer components of individual fitness, specifically parturition and neonate survival. We predicted that parturition and neonate loss events could be identified by sudden and marked changes in female movement patterns. Using GPS radio-telemetry data from female woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou), we developed and tested two novel movement-based methods for inferring parturition and neonate survival. The first method estimated movement thresholds indicative of parturition and neonate loss from population-level data then applied these thresholds in a moving-window analysis on individual time-series data. The second method used an individual-based approach that discriminated among three a priori models representing the movement patterns of non-parturient females, females with surviving offspring, and females losing offspring. The models assumed that step lengths (the distance between successive GPS locations) were exponentially distributed and that abrupt changes in the scale parameter of the exponential distribution were indicative of parturition and offspring loss. Both methods predicted parturition with near certainty (>97% accuracy) and produced appropriate predictions of parturition dates. Prediction of neonate survival was affected by data quality for both methods; however, when using high quality data (i.e., with few missing GPS locations), the individual-based method performed better, predicting neonate survival status with an accuracy rate of 87%. Understanding ungulate population dynamics often requires estimates of parturition and neonate survival rates. With GPS radio-collars increasingly being used in research and management of ungulates, our movement-based methods represent a viable approach for estimating rates of both parameters. Text caribou Rangifer tarandus PubMed Central (PMC) Ecology and Evolution 3 12 4149 4160 |
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Original Research DeMars, Craig A Auger-Méthé, Marie Schlägel, Ulrike E Boutin, Stan Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou |
topic_facet |
Original Research |
description |
Analyses of animal movement data have primarily focused on understanding patterns of space use and the behavioural processes driving them. Here, we analyzed animal movement data to infer components of individual fitness, specifically parturition and neonate survival. We predicted that parturition and neonate loss events could be identified by sudden and marked changes in female movement patterns. Using GPS radio-telemetry data from female woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou), we developed and tested two novel movement-based methods for inferring parturition and neonate survival. The first method estimated movement thresholds indicative of parturition and neonate loss from population-level data then applied these thresholds in a moving-window analysis on individual time-series data. The second method used an individual-based approach that discriminated among three a priori models representing the movement patterns of non-parturient females, females with surviving offspring, and females losing offspring. The models assumed that step lengths (the distance between successive GPS locations) were exponentially distributed and that abrupt changes in the scale parameter of the exponential distribution were indicative of parturition and offspring loss. Both methods predicted parturition with near certainty (>97% accuracy) and produced appropriate predictions of parturition dates. Prediction of neonate survival was affected by data quality for both methods; however, when using high quality data (i.e., with few missing GPS locations), the individual-based method performed better, predicting neonate survival status with an accuracy rate of 87%. Understanding ungulate population dynamics often requires estimates of parturition and neonate survival rates. With GPS radio-collars increasingly being used in research and management of ungulates, our movement-based methods represent a viable approach for estimating rates of both parameters. |
format |
Text |
author |
DeMars, Craig A Auger-Méthé, Marie Schlägel, Ulrike E Boutin, Stan |
author_facet |
DeMars, Craig A Auger-Méthé, Marie Schlägel, Ulrike E Boutin, Stan |
author_sort |
DeMars, Craig A |
title |
Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou |
title_short |
Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou |
title_full |
Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou |
title_fullStr |
Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou |
title_full_unstemmed |
Inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou |
title_sort |
inferring parturition and neonate survival from movement patterns of female ungulates: a case study using woodland caribou |
publisher |
Blackwell Publishing Ltd |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3853560 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24324866 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.785 |
genre |
caribou Rangifer tarandus |
genre_facet |
caribou Rangifer tarandus |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3853560 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24324866 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.785 |
op_rights |
© 2013 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Re-use of this article is permitted in accordance with the Creative Commons Deed, Attribution 2.5, which does not permit commercial exploitation. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.785 |
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Ecology and Evolution |
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3 |
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12 |
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4149 |
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4160 |
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1766388613046599680 |