Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies
Many species aggregate in dense colonies. Species-specific spatial patterns provide clues about how colonies are shaped by various (a)biotic factors, including predation, temperature regulation or disease transmission. Using aerial imagery, we examined these patterns in colonies on land of two sympa...
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ftunivwagenin:oai:library.wur.nl:wurpubs/617513 2024-04-28T08:23:04+00:00 Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies Hoekendijk, J.P.A. Grundlehner, A. Brasseur, S. Kellenberger, B. Tuia, D. Aarts, G. 2023 application/pdf https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/stay-close-but-not-too-close-aerial-image-analysis-reveals-patter https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230269 en eng https://edepot.wur.nl/636192 https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/stay-close-but-not-too-close-aerial-image-analysis-reveals-patter doi:10.1098/rsos.230269 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Wageningen University & Research Royal Society Open Science 10 (2023) 8 ISSN: 2054-5703 Life Science Article/Letter to editor 2023 ftunivwagenin https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230269 2024-04-03T14:34:17Z Many species aggregate in dense colonies. Species-specific spatial patterns provide clues about how colonies are shaped by various (a)biotic factors, including predation, temperature regulation or disease transmission. Using aerial imagery, we examined these patterns in colonies on land of two sympatric seal species: the harbour seal and grey seal. Results show that the density of grey seals on land is twice as high as that of harbour seals. Furthermore, the nearest neighbour distance (NND) of harbour seals (median = 1.06 m) is significantly larger than that of grey seals (median = 0.53 m). Avoidance at small distances (i.e. social distancing) was supported by spatial simulation: when the observed seal locations were shuffled slightly, the frequency of the smallest NNDs (0–25 cm) increased, while the most frequently observed NNDs decreased. As harbour seals are more prone to infectious diseases, we hypothesize that the larger NNDs might be a behavioural response to reduce pathogen transmission. The approach presented here can potentially be used as a practical tool to differentiate between harbour and grey seals in remote sensing applications, particularly in low to medium resolution imagery (e.g. satellite imagery), where morphological characteristics alone are insufficient to differentiate between species. Article in Journal/Newspaper harbour seal Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre): Digital Library Royal Society Open Science 10 8 |
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Open Polar |
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Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre): Digital Library |
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ftunivwagenin |
language |
English |
topic |
Life Science |
spellingShingle |
Life Science Hoekendijk, J.P.A. Grundlehner, A. Brasseur, S. Kellenberger, B. Tuia, D. Aarts, G. Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies |
topic_facet |
Life Science |
description |
Many species aggregate in dense colonies. Species-specific spatial patterns provide clues about how colonies are shaped by various (a)biotic factors, including predation, temperature regulation or disease transmission. Using aerial imagery, we examined these patterns in colonies on land of two sympatric seal species: the harbour seal and grey seal. Results show that the density of grey seals on land is twice as high as that of harbour seals. Furthermore, the nearest neighbour distance (NND) of harbour seals (median = 1.06 m) is significantly larger than that of grey seals (median = 0.53 m). Avoidance at small distances (i.e. social distancing) was supported by spatial simulation: when the observed seal locations were shuffled slightly, the frequency of the smallest NNDs (0–25 cm) increased, while the most frequently observed NNDs decreased. As harbour seals are more prone to infectious diseases, we hypothesize that the larger NNDs might be a behavioural response to reduce pathogen transmission. The approach presented here can potentially be used as a practical tool to differentiate between harbour and grey seals in remote sensing applications, particularly in low to medium resolution imagery (e.g. satellite imagery), where morphological characteristics alone are insufficient to differentiate between species. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hoekendijk, J.P.A. Grundlehner, A. Brasseur, S. Kellenberger, B. Tuia, D. Aarts, G. |
author_facet |
Hoekendijk, J.P.A. Grundlehner, A. Brasseur, S. Kellenberger, B. Tuia, D. Aarts, G. |
author_sort |
Hoekendijk, J.P.A. |
title |
Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies |
title_short |
Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies |
title_full |
Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies |
title_fullStr |
Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies |
title_full_unstemmed |
Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies |
title_sort |
stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/stay-close-but-not-too-close-aerial-image-analysis-reveals-patter https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230269 |
genre |
harbour seal |
genre_facet |
harbour seal |
op_source |
Royal Society Open Science 10 (2023) 8 ISSN: 2054-5703 |
op_relation |
https://edepot.wur.nl/636192 https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/stay-close-but-not-too-close-aerial-image-analysis-reveals-patter doi:10.1098/rsos.230269 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Wageningen University & Research |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230269 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
8 |
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1797584271827795968 |