Abstract
The link between spatio-temporal resource patterns and animal movement behaviour is a key ecological process, however, limited experimental support for this connection has been produced at the home range scale. In this study, we analysed the spatial responses of a resident large herbivore (roe deer Capreolus capreolus) using an in situ manipulation of a concentrated food resource. Specifically, we experimentally altered feeding site accessibility to roe deer and recorded (for 25 animal-years) individual responses by GPS tracking. We found that, following the loss of their preferred resource, roe deer actively tracked resource dynamics leading to more exploratory movements, and larger, spatially-shifted home ranges. Then, we showed, for the first time experimentally, the importance of site fidelity in the maintenance of large mammal home ranges by demonstrating the return of individuals to their familiar, preferred resource despite the presence of alternate, equally-valuable food resources. This behaviour was modulated at the individual level, where roe deer characterised by a high preference for feeding sites exhibited more pronounced behavioural adjustments during the manipulation. Together, our results establish the connections between herbivore movements, space-use, individual preference, and the spatio-temporal pattern of resources in home ranging behaviour.
Highlights
The link between spatio-temporal resource patterns and animal movement behaviour is a key ecological process, limited experimental support for this connection has been produced at the home range scale
Home range and core area sizes were influenced by individual preference for feeding sites (FS) and there was an interaction between hFS and experimental phase: individuals with a high hFS tended to have smaller home ranges during the pre-closure, smaller core areas overall, and stronger increases in both home range and core area sizes following the experimental closure (Fig. 2a,b; Supplementary Information S3: Tables S1, S2; P2.2)
We showed that roe deer tracked resource dynamics (Fig. 3; H1), which led to changes in their space-use (Fig. 2) and underlying movement behaviour
Summary
The link between spatio-temporal resource patterns and animal movement behaviour is a key ecological process, limited experimental support for this connection has been produced at the home range scale. We showed, for the first time experimentally, the importance of site fidelity in the maintenance of large mammal home ranges by demonstrating the return of individuals to their familiar, preferred resource despite the presence of alternate, -valuable food resources This behaviour was modulated at the individual level, where roe deer characterised by a high preference for feeding sites exhibited more pronounced behavioural adjustments during the manipulation. In situ food manipulation experiments have a long history in the study of population dynamics (e.g., understanding the numerical response of a population to food supplementation)[11], and of animal c ommunities[12] These field experiments have provided fundamental insights in animal ecology, they have seldom been combined with the emerging technological capabilities of animal tracking[13] to investigate the implications of food availability on individual movements and space-use at larger spatial scales. Great tits (Parus major) showed personality-dependent variability in responses to an alteration of resource d istribution[15]
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