TY - GEN
A1 - Stiegler, Jonas
A1 - Lins, Alisa
A1 - Dammhahn, Melanie
A1 - Kramer-Schadt, Stephanie
A1 - Ortmann, Sylvia
A1 - Blaum, Niels
T1 - Personality drives activity and space use in a mammalian herbivore
T2 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2 - Background
Animal personality has emerged as a key concept in behavioral ecology. While many studies have demonstrated the influence of personality traits on behavioral patterns, its quantification, especially in wild animal populations, remains a challenge. Only a few studies have established a link between personality and recurring movements within home ranges, although these small-scale movements are of key importance for identifying ecological interactions and forming individual niches. In this regard, differences in space use among individuals might reflect different exploration styles between behavioral types along the shy-bold continuum.
Methods
We assessed among-individual differences in behavior in the European hare (Lepus europaeus), a characteristic mammalian herbivore in agricultural landscapes using a standardized box emergence test for captive and wild hares. We determined an individuals’ degree of boldness by measuring the latencies of behavioral responses in repeated emergence tests in captivity. During capture events of wild hares, we conducted a single emergence test and recorded behavioral responses proven to be stable over time in captive hares. Applying repeated novel environment tests in a near-natural enclosure, we further quantified aspects of exploration and activity in captive hares. Finally, we investigated whether and how this among-individual behavioral variation is related to general activity and space use in a wild hare population. Wild and captive hares were treated similarly and GPS-collared with internal accelerometers prior to release to the wild or the outdoor enclosure, respectively. General activity was quantified as overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA) obtained from accelerometers. Finally, we tested whether boldness explained variation in (i) ODBA in both settings and (ii) variation in home ranges and core areas across different time scales of GPS-collared hares in a wild population.
Results
We found three behavioral responses to be consistent over time in captive hares. ODBA was positively related to boldness (i.e., short latencies to make first contact with the new environment) in both captive and wild hares. Space use in wild hares also varied with boldness, with shy individuals having smaller core areas and larger home ranges than bold conspecifics (yet in some of the parameter space, this association was just marginally significant).
Conclusions
Against our prediction, shy individuals occupied relatively large home ranges but with small core areas. We suggest that this space use pattern is due to them avoiding risky, and energy-demanding competition for valuable resources. Carefully validated, activity measurements (ODBA) from accelerometers provide a valuable tool to quantify aspects of animal personality along the shy-bold continuum remotely. Without directly observing—and possibly disturbing—focal individuals, this approach allows measuring variability in animal personality, especially in species that are difficult to assess with experiments. Considering that accelerometers are often already built into GPS units, we recommend activating them at least during the initial days of tracking to estimate individual variation in general activity and, if possible, match them with a simple novelty experiment. Furthermore, information on individual behavioral types will help to facilitate mechanistic understanding of processes that drive spatial and ecological dynamics in heterogeneous landscapes.
T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1299
KW - Animal personality
KW - Movement ecology
KW - Inter-individual differences
KW - ODBA
KW - Energy expenditure
KW - European hare
Y1 - 2023
U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-577327
SN - 1866-8372
SP - 1
EP - 12
PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam
CY - Potsdam
ER -
TY - CHAP
A1 - Popp, Alexander
A1 - Blaum, Niels
A1 - Domptail, Stephanie
A1 - Herpel, Nicole
A1 - Gröngröft, Alexander
A1 - Hoffman, T. T.
A1 - Jürgens, Norbert
A1 - Milton, Sue
A1 - Nuppenau, Ernst-August
A1 - Rossmanith, Eva
A1 - Schmidt, Michael
A1 - Vogel, Melanie
A1 - Vohland, Katrin
A1 - Jeltsch, Florian
T1 - From satellite imagery to soil-plant interactions
BT - integrating disciplines and scales in process based simulation models
N2 - Decisions for the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable management of natural resources are typically related to large scales, i.e. the landscape level. However, understanding and predicting the effects of land use and climate change on scales relevant for decision-making requires to include both, large scale vegetation dynamics and small scale processes, such as soil-plant interactions. Integrating the results of multiple BIOTA subprojects enabled us to include necessary data of soil science, botany, socio-economics and remote sensing into a high resolution, process-based and spatially-explicit model. Using an example from a sustainably-used research farm and a communally used and degraded farming area in semiarid southern Namibia we show the power of simulation models as a tool to integrate processes across disciplines and scales.
Y1 - 2006
U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-7302
N1 - Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Musterdynamik und Angewandte Fernerkundung Workshop vom 9. - 10. Februar 2006.
[Poster]
ER -
TY - CHAP
A1 - Rossmanith, Eva
A1 - Blaum, Niels
A1 - Keil, Manfred
A1 - Langerwisch, F.
A1 - Meyer, Jork
A1 - Popp, Alexander
A1 - Schmidt, Michael
A1 - Schultz, Christoph
A1 - Schwager, Monika
A1 - Vogel, Melanie
A1 - Wasiolka, Bernd
A1 - Jeltsch, Florian
T1 - Scaling up local population dynamics to regional scales
BT - an integrated approach
N2 - In semi-arid savannas, unsustainable land use can lead to degradation of entire landscapes, e.g. in the form of shrub encroachment. This leads to habitat loss and is assumed to reduce species diversity. In BIOTA phase 1, we investigated the effects of land use on population dynamics on farm scale. In phase 2 we scale up to consider the whole regional landscape consisting of a diverse mosaic of farms with different historic and present land use intensities. This mosaic creates a heterogeneous, dynamic pattern of structural diversity at a large spatial scale. Understanding how the region-wide dynamic land use pattern affects the abundance of animal and plant species requires the integration of processes on large as well as on small spatial scales. In our multidisciplinary approach, we integrate information from remote sensing, genetic and ecological field studies as well as small scale process models in a dynamic region-wide simulation tool.
Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Musterdynamik und Angewandte Fernerkundung Workshop vom 9. - 10. Februar 2006.
Y1 - 2006
U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-7320
N1 - [Poster]
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Stiegler, Jonas
A1 - Lins, Alisa
A1 - Dammhahn, Melanie
A1 - Kramer-Schadt, Stephanie
A1 - Ortmann, Sylvia
A1 - Blaum, Niels
T1 - Personality drives activity and space use in a mammalian herbivore
JF - Movement Ecology
N2 - Background
Animal personality has emerged as a key concept in behavioral ecology. While many studies have demonstrated the influence of personality traits on behavioral patterns, its quantification, especially in wild animal populations, remains a challenge. Only a few studies have established a link between personality and recurring movements within home ranges, although these small-scale movements are of key importance for identifying ecological interactions and forming individual niches. In this regard, differences in space use among individuals might reflect different exploration styles between behavioral types along the shy-bold continuum.
Methods
We assessed among-individual differences in behavior in the European hare (Lepus europaeus), a characteristic mammalian herbivore in agricultural landscapes using a standardized box emergence test for captive and wild hares. We determined an individuals’ degree of boldness by measuring the latencies of behavioral responses in repeated emergence tests in captivity. During capture events of wild hares, we conducted a single emergence test and recorded behavioral responses proven to be stable over time in captive hares. Applying repeated novel environment tests in a near-natural enclosure, we further quantified aspects of exploration and activity in captive hares. Finally, we investigated whether and how this among-individual behavioral variation is related to general activity and space use in a wild hare population. Wild and captive hares were treated similarly and GPS-collared with internal accelerometers prior to release to the wild or the outdoor enclosure, respectively. General activity was quantified as overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA) obtained from accelerometers. Finally, we tested whether boldness explained variation in (i) ODBA in both settings and (ii) variation in home ranges and core areas across different time scales of GPS-collared hares in a wild population.
Results
We found three behavioral responses to be consistent over time in captive hares. ODBA was positively related to boldness (i.e., short latencies to make first contact with the new environment) in both captive and wild hares. Space use in wild hares also varied with boldness, with shy individuals having smaller core areas and larger home ranges than bold conspecifics (yet in some of the parameter space, this association was just marginally significant).
Conclusions
Against our prediction, shy individuals occupied relatively large home ranges but with small core areas. We suggest that this space use pattern is due to them avoiding risky, and energy-demanding competition for valuable resources. Carefully validated, activity measurements (ODBA) from accelerometers provide a valuable tool to quantify aspects of animal personality along the shy-bold continuum remotely. Without directly observing—and possibly disturbing—focal individuals, this approach allows measuring variability in animal personality, especially in species that are difficult to assess with experiments. Considering that accelerometers are often already built into GPS units, we recommend activating them at least during the initial days of tracking to estimate individual variation in general activity and, if possible, match them with a simple novelty experiment. Furthermore, information on individual behavioral types will help to facilitate mechanistic understanding of processes that drive spatial and ecological dynamics in heterogeneous landscapes.
KW - Animal personality
KW - Movement ecology
KW - Inter-individual differences
KW - ODBA
KW - Energy expenditure
KW - European hare
Y1 - 2022
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-022-00333-6
SN - 2051-3933
VL - 10
PB - BioMed Central (BMC), Springer Nature
CY - London
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Hering, Robert
A1 - Hauptfleisch, Morgan
A1 - Jago, Mark
A1 - Smith, Taylor
A1 - Kramer-Schadt, Stephanie
A1 - Stiegler, Jonas
A1 - Blaum, Niels
T1 - Don't stop me now: Managed fence gaps could allow migratory ungulates to track dynamic resources and reduce fence related energy loss
JF - Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
N2 - In semi-arid environments characterized by erratic rainfall and scattered primary production, migratory movements are a key survival strategy of large herbivores to track resources over vast areas. Veterinary Cordon Fences (VCFs), intended to reduce wildlife-livestock disease transmission, fragment large parts of southern Africa and have limited the movements of large wild mammals for over 60 years. Consequently, wildlife-fence interactions are frequent and often result in perforations of the fence, mainly caused by elephants. Yet, we lack knowledge about at which times fences act as barriers, how fences directly alter the energy expenditure of native herbivores, and what the consequences of impermeability are. We studied 2-year ungulate movements in three common antelopes (springbok, kudu, eland) across a perforated part of Namibia's VCF separating a wildlife reserve and Etosha National Park using GPS telemetry, accelerometer measurements, and satellite imagery. We identified 2905 fence interaction events which we used to evaluate critical times of encounters and direct fence effects on energy expenditure. Using vegetation type-specific greenness dynamics, we quantified what animals gained in terms of high quality food resources from crossing the VCF. Our results show that the perforation of the VCF sustains herbivore-vegetation interactions in the savanna with its scattered resources. Fence permeability led to peaks in crossing numbers during the first flush of woody plants before the rain started. Kudu and eland often showed increased energy expenditure when crossing the fence. Energy expenditure was lowered during the frequent interactions of ungulates standing at the fence. We found no alteration of energy expenditure when springbok immediately found and crossed fence breaches. Our results indicate that constantly open gaps did not affect energy expenditure, while gaps with obstacles increased motion. Closing gaps may have confused ungulates and modified their intended movements. While browsing, sedentary kudu's use of space was less affected by the VCF; migratory, mixed-feeding springbok, and eland benefited from gaps by gaining forage quality and quantity after crossing. This highlights the importance of access to vast areas to allow ungulates to track vital vegetation patches.
KW - veterinary cordon fence
KW - ungulate
KW - fence ecology
KW - resource-tracking
KW - energy expenditure
KW - accelerometer
KW - GPS
KW - wildlife and habitat management
Y1 - 2022
U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.907079
SN - 2296-701X
SP - 1
EP - 18
PB - Frontiers
CY - Lausanne, Schweiz
ER -