Abstract
Animals continuously interact with their environment through behavioral decisions, rendering the appropriate choice of movement speed and directionality an important phenotypic trait. Anthropogenic activities may alter animal behavior, including movement. A detailed understanding of movement decisions is therefore of great relevance for science and conservation alike. The study of movement decisions in relation to environmental and seasonal cues requires continuous observation of movement behavior, recently made possible by high‐resolution telemetry. We studied movement traits of 13 capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), a mainly ground‐moving forest bird species of conservation interest, over two summer seasons in a Swedish windfarm using high‐resolution GPS tracking data (5‐min sampling interval). We filtered and removed unreliable movement steps using accelerometer data and step characteristics. We explored variation in movement speed and directionality in relation to environmental and seasonal covariates using generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs). We found evidence for clear daily and seasonal variation in speed and directionality of movement that reflected behavioral adjustments to biological and environmental seasonality. Capercaillie moved slower when more turbines were visible and faster close to turbine access roads. Movement speed and directionality were highest on open bogs, lowest on recent clear‐cuts (<5 y.o.), and intermediate in all types of forest. Our results provide novel insights into the seasonal and environmental correlates of capercaillie movement patterns and supplement previous behavioral observations on lekking behavior and wind turbine avoidance with a more mechanistic understanding.
Highlights
Animal movement is a fundamental property of biological systems, shaping their structure and dynamics from individual behavioral decisions to the community or ecosystem level (Joo et al, 2020; Nathan et al, 2008)
Animals continuously interact with their environment through behavioral decisions, rendering the appropriate choice of movement speed and directionality an important phenotypic trait
We analyze movement traits of capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), a primarily ground-dwelling and slow-moving grouse species inhabiting coniferous forests, in two adjoining Swedish wind farms using GPS data collected at a high temporal resolution by means of a two-step approach
Summary
Animal movement is a fundamental property of biological systems, shaping their structure and dynamics from individual behavioral decisions to the community or ecosystem level (Joo et al, 2020; Nathan et al, 2008). Grouse are large ground-nesting birds with 20 species occurring at temperate and boreal latitudes across the northern hemisphere (IUCN, 2020) They are popular game birds and, in many places, of high conservation interest owing to declining trends in reproductive success and abundance (Jahren et al, 2016; Storch, 2007). Many existing studies infer conservation-relevant spatial behaviors from indirect data or behavior at the lek, such as avoidance of anthropogenic disturbance caused by wind turbines or recreational activities (e.g., Coppes, Braunisch, et al, 2020; Coppes, Kämmerle, et al, 2020; Coppes et al, 2018; Summers et al, 2007), while the underlying behavioral decisions remain largely unknown. We analyze movement traits of capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), a primarily ground-dwelling and slow-moving grouse species inhabiting coniferous forests, in two adjoining Swedish wind farms using GPS data collected at a high temporal resolution (defined as a 5-min sampling interval) by means of a two-step approach. We focused on (1) environmental and (2) seasonal variation in fine- scale movement behavior (i.e., movement speed and directionality) and (3) explored behavioral reactions to wind turbines
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