Abstract
Animal movement and resource use are tightly linked. Investigating these links to understand how animals use space and select habitats is especially relevant in areas affected by habitat fragmentation and agricultural conversion. We set out to explore the space use and habitat selection of Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) in a heterogenous, agricultural landscape within the Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve, northeast Thailand. We used VHF telemetry to record the daily locations of seven Burmese pythons and created dynamic Brownian Bridge Movement Models to produce occurrence distributions and model movement extent and temporal patterns. To explore relationships between movement and habitat selection we used integrated step selection functions at both the individual and population level. Burmese pythons had a mean 99% occurrence distribution contour of 98.97 ha (range 9.05–285.56 ha). Furthermore, our results indicated that Burmese pythons had low mean individual motion variance, indicating infrequent moves and long periods at a single location. In general, Burmese pythons restricted movement and selected aquatic habitats but did not avoid potentially dangerous land use types like human settlements. Although our sample is small, we suggest that Burmese pythons are capitalizing on human disturbed landscapes.
Highlights
Animal movement and resource use are tightly linked
Animal movement links to resource use such as habitat selection as movement is highly impacted by habitat a vailability[5]
Burmese pythons moved 41.56 ± 7.43 m per day (Supplementary Table 3)
Summary
Animal movement and resource use are tightly linked. Investigating these links to understand how animals use space and select habitats is especially relevant in areas affected by habitat fragmentation and agricultural conversion. Carpet pythons (Morelia spilota), for example capitalize on suburban areas in Australia by sheltering in vegetation thickets or even in the roofs of domestic residences while preying upon human-reliant species like rats (Rattus spp.), pets, and livestock[12] This resilience to habitat changes and affinity for human-modified landscapes often leads to human-wildlife conflict in the forms of property damage, livestock loss, and physical injury[13,14]. Burmese pythons range throughout Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, in Thailand north of the Isthmus of Kra, Cambodia, Vietnam, throughout Southern China and in disjunct populations in Northern and Northeastern India and Southern N epal[18] In their native range, Burmese pythons occupy diverse habitat types including tropical lowlands, grasslands, forests, agricultural land, aquatic habitats and even green spaces within cities[18,19]. In addition to being widely distributed throughout Southeast Asia, Burmese pythons are a highly prolific invasive species throughout Southern Florida, USA, most notably in the Florida Everglades, where they have greatly disrupted native ecosystems[22,23]
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