Territory size and age explain movement patterns in the Eurasian beaver

Graf, Patricia; Mayer, Martin; Zedrosser, Andreas; Hackländer, Klaus; Rosell, Frank

doi:10.1016/j.mambio.2016.07.046

Cited by 48 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…Nontagging related, but informative effects included longer principal activity periods in autumn and greater distances covered by beavers living in larger territories. The latter result is intuitive and accords with Graf et al (2016), who showed that beavers exhibit different movement strategies in relation to territory sizes and describe the same relationship for a different subset of beavers from the same study area. In contrast to two studies that found no seasonal differences in principal (Sharpe and Rosell 2003;Swinnen et al 2015), we suggest that longer principal activity periods in autumn could be coupled with winter preparations such as food-caching behaviour (Busher 1996;Hartman and Axelsson 2004) and lodge repair work (Żurowski 1992).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Short-term effects of tagging on activity and movement patterns of Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber)

et al. 2016

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Bio-logging is becoming increasingly popular amongst wildlife researchers, providing a remote way of monitoring free-ranging animals in their natural habitats. However, capturing and tagging can be stressful and may alter animal behaviour. In this study, we investigated whether tagging altered activity and movement patterns of Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) during the first week after release, predicting that beavers would be less active, travel shorter distances and stay closer to the lodge in the first nights after the tagging event. We captured 29 dominant free-ranging beavers (12 females, 17 males) in Telemark county, Norway, and tagged them with GPS units (n = 23; 12 males, 11 females) and triaxial acceleration data loggers (n = 14; 9 males, 5 females). Accelerometer data was used to investigate activity levels (using mean overall dynamic body acceleration ODBA and principal activity periods), while GPS data was used to determine movement patterns (using distance moved and lodge displacement rate). Tagging effects were apparent only in activity levels of beavers, where we found lower mean ODBA values after release although the small effect size (Cohen's d = 0.17) indicates only a minimal difference in activity. Neither principal activity periods nor distances moved or lodge displacement rate changed within the first week after release, which indicates that beavers were active and post-release space use within the territory was not affected by the tagging event in this respect.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Short-term effects of tagging on activity and movement patterns of Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber)

et al. 2016

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“…In our study area, beavers were foraging closer to the shore when occupying larger territories as compared to smaller ones, suggesting sufficient resource availability in larger territories (Graf et al., ). It was shown that beavers in larger territories were moving greater distances in water and spent more time patrolling, indicating that they used more energy due to swimming effort and temperature constrains (being in cold water) (Graf et al., ; Herr & Rosell, ). Hence, there is evidence that the defense of larger territories is constrained by an increased patrolling effort, which in effect leads to a reduced DTO and LRS.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…Parental tolerance toward the offspring is assumed to be a driver for the evolution of delayed dispersal (Ekman, Sklepkovych, & Tegelstrom, ), and the age at dispersal in our study area was positively related to the parental age (Mayer et al., ). Older parents might be more tolerant toward their offspring (Graf et al., ; Mayer et al., ), whereas younger parents might force their offspring to disperse earlier. Alternatively, individuals might perceive senescence in their parents and await their disappearance in order to take over the natal territory as shown in female common lizards ( Lacerta vivipara ) (Ronce, Clobert, & Massot, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pairs remain together until the loss of a partner, either by death or emigration (Svendsen, 1989) or via replacement by a new individual (Mayer, Küenzel, Zedrosser, & Rosell, 2017a). Movement patterns of Eurasian beavers change with territory size (Herr & Rosell, 2004), and individuals trade off the costs of patrolling large territories by foraging closer to the shore (Graf, Mayer, Zedrosser, Hackländer, & Rosell, 2016). Although observed in North American beavers (Crawford, Liu, Nelson, Nielsen, & Bloomquist, 2008), there is little evidence that extrapair copulation occurs in Eurasian beavers (Syrůčková et al, 2015;Tinnesand, 2017).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Couch potatoes do better: Delayed dispersal and territory size affect the duration of territory occupancy in a monogamous mammal

Mayer

Zedrosser

Rosell

2017

Ecology and Evolution

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In territorial, socially monogamous species, the establishment and defense of a territory are an important strategy to maximize individual fitness, but the factors responsible for the duration of territory occupancy are rarely studied, especially in long-lived mammals. A long-term monitoring program in southeast Norway spanning over 18 years allowed us to follow the individual life histories of Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) from adolescence in their natal family group to dispersal and territory establishment until the end of territory occupancy. We investigated whether territory size, resource availability, population density, and dispersal age could explain the duration of territory occupancy, which ranged from 1 to 11 years. The duration of territory occupancy was positively related to dispersal age, suggesting that individuals that delayed dispersal had a competitive advantage due to a larger body mass. This is in support with the maturation hypothesis, which states that an animal should await its physical and behavioral maturation before the acquisition of a territory. Further, we found that individuals that established in medium-sized territories occupied them longer as compared to individuals in small or large territories. This suggests that large territories are more costly to defend due to an increased patrolling effort, and small territories might not have sufficient resources. The lifetime reproductive success ranged from zero to six kits and generally increased with an increasing duration of territory occupancy. Our findings show the importance of holding a territory and demonstrate that dispersal decisions and territory selection have important consequences for the fitness of an individual.

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“…As such, hypotheses explaining animal movement have been linked to territorial defence (Graf et al . ), den or nest construction (Mainwaring & Hartley ), fulfilling reproductive or food‐gathering goals (Weimerskirch et al . ), or transiting between daily or seasonally varying ranges (Wittemyer et al .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Relevance of individual and environmental drivers of movement of Golden Eagles

Sur

Duerr²,

Bell³

et al. 2019

Ibis

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An animal's movement is expected to be governed by an interplay between goals determined by its internal state and energetic costs associated with navigating through the external environment. Understanding this ecological process is challenging when an animal moves in two dimensions and even more difficult for birds that move in a third dimension. To understand the dynamic interaction between the internal state of an animal and the variable external environment, we evaluated hypotheses explaining association of different covariates of movement and the trade‐offs birds face as they make behavioural decisions in a fluctuating landscape. We used ~870 000 GPS telemetry data points collected from 68 Golden Eagles Aquila chrysaetos to test demographic, diel, topographic and meteorological hypotheses to determine (1) the probability that these birds would be in motion and (2), once in motion, their flight speed. A complex and sometimes interacting set of potential internal and external factors determined movement behaviour. There was good evidence that reproductive state, manifested as age, sex and seasonal effects, had a significant influence on the probability of being in motion and, to a lesser extent, on speed of motion. Likewise, movement responses to the external environment were often unexpectedly strong. These responses, to northness of slope, strength of orographic updraft and intensity of solar radiation, were regionally and temporally variable. In contrast to previous work showing the role of a single environmental factor in determining movement decisions, our analyses support the hypothesis that multiple factors simultaneously interact to influence animal movement. In particular they highlighted how movement is influenced by the interaction between the individual's internal reproductive state and the external environment, and that, of the environmental factors, topographic influences are often more relevant than meteorological influences in determining patterns of flight behaviour. Further disentangling of how these internal and externals states jointly affect movement will provide additional insights into the energetic costs of movement and benefits associated with achieving process‐driven goals.

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Territory size and age explain movement patterns in the Eurasian beaver

Cited by 48 publications

References 80 publications

Short-term effects of tagging on activity and movement patterns of Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber)

Short-term effects of tagging on activity and movement patterns of Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber)

Couch potatoes do better: Delayed dispersal and territory size affect the duration of territory occupancy in a monogamous mammal

Relevance of individual and environmental drivers of movement of Golden Eagles

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