Abstract
Animals access resources such as food and shelter, and acquiring these resources has varying risks and benefits, depending on the suitability of the landscape. Some animals change their patterns of resource selection in space and time to optimize the trade‐off between risks and benefits. We examine the circadian variation in resource selection of swamp wallabies (Wallabia bicolor) within a human‐modified landscape, an environment of varying suitability. We used GPS data from 48 swamp wallabies to compare the use of landscape features such as woodland and scrub, housing estates, farmland, coastal areas, wetlands, waterbodies, and roads to their availability using generalized linear mixed models. We investigated which features were selected by wallabies and determined whether the distance to different landscape features changed, depending on the time of the day. During the day, wallabies were more likely to be found within or near natural landscape features such as woodlands and scrub, wetlands, and coastal vegetation, while avoiding landscape features that may be perceived as more risky (roads, housing, waterbodies, and farmland), but those features were selected more at night. Finally, we mapped our results to predict habitat suitability for swamp wallabies in human‐modified landscapes. We showed that wallabies living in a human‐modified landscape selected different landscape features during day or night. Changing circadian patterns of resource selection might enhance the persistence of species in landscapes where resources are fragmented and disturbed.
Highlights
Human land‐use change has led to habitat loss and fragmentation (Fahrig, 2003)
We predict that males would select landscape features that may pose higher risks more than females, because we know that male macropods are more often involved in fatal vehicle collisions, suggesting that they expose themselves to greater risk (Coulson, 1997)
We show Akaike's information criteria adjusted with corrections for finite sample size (AICc) and the null model
Summary
Human land‐use change has led to habitat loss and fragmentation (Fahrig, 2003). Both scenarios result in an increase in spatial het‐ erogeneity of resources, which are important for animals to survive (White, 1983). The European roe deer (Capreolus capreo‐ lus) accesses high‐quality food in grassland, but this exposes them to stress factors such as heat, increased predation risk, and human dis‐ turbance (Bonnot et al, 2012) To optimize this trade‐off of animals encountering landscapes with opposing benefits, it has been shown that herbivores alter their behavior through time (Lykkja et al, 2009; Markovchick‐Nicholls et al, 2008; Munns, 2006; Rettie & Messier, 2000). Di Stefano, York, Swan, Greenfield, and Coulson (2009) and Swan, Stefano, Greenfield, and Coulson (2008) found that within timber production forests of varying harvesting ages, selection of food and shelter resources changed within a 24‐hr period These studies took place in the swamp wallabies’ natural or seminatural habitat where resources are abundant. We predict that males would select landscape features that may pose higher risks more than females, because we know that male macropods are more often involved in fatal vehicle collisions, suggesting that they expose themselves to greater risk (Coulson, 1997)
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