Management and conservation of populations of animals requires information on where they are, why they are there, and where else they could be. These objectives are typically approached by collecting data on the animals' use of space, relating these positional data to prevailing environmental conditions and employing the resulting statistical models to predict usage at other geographical regions. Technical advances in wildlife telemetry have accomplished manifold increases in the amount and quality of available data, creating the need for a statistical framework that can use them to make population-level inferences for habitat preference and space-use. This has been slow-in-coming because wildlife telemetry data are spatio-temporally autocorrelated, often unbalanced, presence-only observations of behaviourally complex animals, responding to a multitude of cross-correlated environmental variables.We review the evolution of regression models for the analysis of space-use and habitat preference and outline the essential features of a framework that emerges naturally from these foundations. This allows us to derive a relationship between usage of points in geographical space and preference of habitats in environmental space. Within this framework, we discuss eight challenges, inherent in the spatial analysis of telemetry data and, for each, we propose solutions that can work in tandem. Specifically, we propose a logistic, mixed-effects approach that uses generalized additive transformations of the environmental covariates and is fitted to a response data-set comprising the telemetry and simulated observations, under a case-control design.We apply this framework to a non-trivial case-study using satellite-tagged grey seals Halichoerus grypus from the east coast of Scotland. We perform model selection by cross-validation and confront our final model's predictions with telemetry data from the same, as well as different, geographical regions. We conclude that, despite the complex behaviour of the study species, flexible empirical models can capture the environmental relationships that shape population distributions.

Sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus habitat preferences are still poorly understood in the Mediterranean, despite the population being classified as 'Endangered' by the IUCN. Techniques to make the best use of multiple data sources are important in improving this situation. This work provides a detailed evaluation of sperm whale distribution and habitat use around the Balearic Islands using a novel analytical framework that combines transect and follow data while accounting for any autocorrelation present. During dedicated research cruises (2003 to 2008), sperm whales were located by listening at regular intervals along a search track and subsequently followed acoustically. Sperm whales were encountered 56 times and followed for periods ranging from a few hours to 3 d. Logistic Generalized Additive Models were used to model the probability of whale presence across the study area as a function of environmental variables, and Generalized Estimating Equations were used to account for autocorrelation. The results suggest that sperm whales do not use the region uniformly and that topography plays a key role in shaping their distribution. Moreover, solitary individuals were found to use the habitat differently from groups. This segregation appeared to be driven by water temperature and might reflect different needs or intraspecific competition. By shedding light on sperm whale habitat preference in such a critical area, this study represents an important step towards the implementation of conservation measures for this population.KEY WORDS: Habitat modelling · Cetacean · Distribution · Balearic Islands · GAM · GEE · Multi-scale 436: 257-272, 2011 258 archipelago is one of the few areas in the Mediterranean Sea in which both social units and mature males are observed consistently, suggesting a possibly important role as breeding ground (Gannier et al. 2002, Drouot-Dulau & Gannier 2007. Nevertheless, no long-term study has been conducted to date to specifically estimate the species distribution in this region, and thus little information exists on its space use and habitat preferences around the archipelago. Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog SerHabitat preference modelling techniques represent a useful tool to quantify the relationships between a species and its environment (Guisan & Zimmermann 2000, Redfern et al. 2006, Matthiopoulos & Aarts 2010. Knowing where the animals are, what environmental characteristics influence their choice of habitat and how this choice changes with time is crucial to understanding the species' ecology, identifying the areas of critical importance, assessing the overlap with human activities and, ultimately, guiding appropriate conservation efforts (Redfern et al. 2006). Food availability is probably the main determinant of space use by marine mammals (e.g. Benoit-Bird & Au 2003, Hastie et al. 2004, Frederiksen et al. 2006, Friedlaender et al. 2006. Other potentially important factors affecting habitat choice include beh...

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For wild, sea-run brown trout (Salmo trutta) smolts, the physiological consequences of abrupt transfer to seawater and simultaneous challenge with copepodid larvae of the sea louse, Lepeophtheirus salmonis (Krøyer, 1837), were investigated in the laboratory. Analysis of osmoregulatory, metabolic, and stress markers allowed the derivation of a sublethal threshold burden of L. salmonis, above which the host suffers major physiological stress. Noticeable lice effects, consistent across all measured markers, were not observed until L. salmonis developed to the mobile preadult and adult stages. Preadult L. salmonis caused significant increases in plasma chloride, osmolality, glucose, lactate, and cortisol and a significant reduction in haematocrit. Piecewise linear statistical approaches allowed the determination of abrupt changes in these physiological markers, attributable to the intensity of L. salmonis infestation on individual fish, and identification of overall threshold lice burdens. Thirteen mobile lice·fish–1 (weight range 19–70 g) was a consistent breakpoint across several physiological measures. This information will provide a valuable, objectively derived tool to aid in the formulation of effective wild fisheries management policy concerning S. trutta conservation.

Investigation of activity budgets in relation to seasonal, intrinsic (age, sex) and extrinsic (time of day, spatial) covariates enables an understanding of how such covariates shape behavioural strategies. However, conducting such investigations in the wild is challenging, because of the required large sample size of individuals across the annual cycle, and difficulties in categorising behavioural states and analysing the resulting individual‐referenced and serially correlated data. In this study, from telemetry tags deployed on 63 grey seals Halichoerus grypus and 126 harbour seals Phoca vitulina we used behavioural data, and movement data within a Bayesian state–space model (SSM), to define population‐level activity budgets around Britain. Using generalised estimating equations (GEEs) we then examined how time spent in four states (resting on land (hauled out), resting at sea, foraging and travelling) was influenced by seasonal, intrinsic and extrinsic covariates. We present and discuss the following key findings. 1) We found no evidence that regional variation in foraging effort was linked to regional population trajectories in harbour seals. 2) Grey seals demonstrated sex‐specific seasonal differences in their activity budgets, independent from those related to reproductive costs. 3) In these sympatric species there was evidence of temporal separation in time hauled out, but not in time foraging. 4) In both species, time spent resting at sea was separated into inshore (associated with tidal haul out availability) and offshore areas. Time spent resting at sea and on land was interchangeable to some extent, suggesting a degree of overlap in their functionality. This may result in a relaxation of the constraints associated with a central place foraging strategy. More generally, we demonstrate how a large dataset, incorporating differing tag parameters, can be analysed to define activity budgets and subsequently address important ecological questions.

Long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) are highly social cetaceans that live in matrilineal groups and acquire their prey during deep foraging dives. We tagged individual pilot whales to record their diving behaviour. To describe the social context of this individual behaviour, the tag data were matched with surface observations at the group level using a novel protocol. The protocol comprised two key components: a dynamic definition of the group centred around the tagged individual, and a set of behavioural parameters quantifying visually observable characteristics of the group. Our results revealed that the diving behaviour of tagged individuals was associated with distinct group-level behaviour at the water’s surface. During foraging, groups broke up into smaller and more widely spaced units with a higher degree of milling behaviour. These data formed the basis for a classification model, using random forest decision trees, which accurately distinguished between bouts of shallow diving and bouts of deep foraging dives based on group behaviour observed at the surface. The results also indicated that members of a group to a large degree synchronised the timing of their foraging periods. This was confirmed by pairs of tagged individuals that nearly always synchronized their diving bouts. Hence, our study illustrates that integration of individual-level and group-level observations can shed new light on the social context of the individual foraging behaviour of animals living in groups.

The physiological consequences of “premature migratory return” to freshwater for wild sea-run brown trout (Salmo trutta) smolts infested with sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) were investigated in the laboratory. Osmoregulatory, metabolic, and stress markers were analysed in order to assess the potential consequences of transfer to freshwater, 19 days after the challenge with L. salmonis. Infestation intensity was significantly reduced following transfer to freshwater, and mortality rates were markedly higher in infested fish maintained in seawater vs. fish that were transferred to freshwater. Significant sea lice effects, consistent across a number of physiological markers, were apparent once L. salmonis developed to the mobile stages. Plasma chloride, lactate, and cortisol all were significantly higher than control values, and liver glycogen concentration was significantly reduced in infested fish in seawater. After return to freshwater, these physiological measures returned to control levels, but significant lice effects persisted for fish maintained in seawater. Premature return of infested sea-run brown trout to freshwater does, therefore, confer significant short-term physiological benefits across a range of osmoregulatory, metabolic, and stress markers.

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