Landscape knowledge is an important driver of the fission dynamics of an alpine ungulate

Lesmerises, Frédéric; Johnson, Chris J.; St‐Laurent, Martin‐Hugues

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.03.014

Cited by 16 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Our findings suggest that caribou social association varies across seasons, which could either be an outcome of seasonal variation in foraging behavior or, alternatively, could be a driver of social information about forage opportunities in winter. Either way, our findings contribute to the growing body of literature that highlights the link between social association and space use in caribou (Lesmerises et al, ). We also highlight seasonal variation in how access to forage can be used as an indirect test to better understand the relationship between social processes and foraging in caribou.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

“…Although no data exist on encounter rates among caribou and their predators in our study area, for females with calves‐at‐heel, predation risk during summer when calves are a few months old could suggest that some female caribou with very large home ranges move longer distances after encountering predators. Evidence also exists suggesting that caribou avoid risky habitat (Bastille‐Rousseau, Rayl et al, ) and that caribou dyads are more likely to stay together when risk of predation is high, especially in winter (Lesmerises et al, ). Taken together, predation is likely an important driver of both social association and space use and although we were unable to incorporate aspects of predation in our study, we encourage future studies to simultaneously model effects of predation on social association and space use in caribou.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We generated social networks for each herd in each season based on proximity of GPS fixes for individual caribou. We assumed association between two individuals if simultaneous GPS fixes (i.e., recorded within 5 min of each other) were within 50 m of one another (Lesmerises et al, ). We represented individuals in our networks by nodes and associations between individuals were represented by edges.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During summer, when the distribution of forage is, by comparison, relatively homogeneous, social groups dissolve and female caribou with calves tend to forage alone or in small groups (Stuart‐Smith, Bradshaw, Boutin, Hebert, & Rippin, ). For caribou in Gaspésie, Canada, dyads spent more time together in winter, when resources are relatively heterogeneous, compared to spring, summer, and autumn, when resources are relatively homogenous (Lesmerises, Johnson, & St‐Laurent, ). Predictions about the distribution of resources may be impractical to test in the field; therefore, we do not measure resource dispersion or abundance, but rather, our predictions are informed by the natural history and biology of caribou as they relate to seasonal differences in the access to forage (for examples see Bergerud, ; Briand, Ouellet, & Dussault, ; Hansen, Aanes, & Sæther, ; Rominger, Robbins, & Evans, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Space use and social association in a gregarious ungulate: Testing the conspecific attraction and resource dispersion hypotheses

Peignier

Webber

Koen

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Animals use a variety of proximate cues to assess habitat quality when resources vary spatiotemporally. Two nonmutually exclusive strategies to assess habitat quality involve either direct assessment of landscape features or observation of social cues from conspecifics as a form of information transfer about forage resources. The conspecific attraction hypothesis proposes that individual space use is dependent on the distribution of conspecifics rather than the location of resource patches, whereas the resource dispersion hypothesis proposes that individual space use and social association are driven by the abundance and distribution of resources. We tested the conspecific attraction and the resource dispersion hypotheses as two nonmutually exclusive hypotheses explaining social association and of adult female caribou ( Rangifer tarandus ). We used location data from GPS collars to estimate interannual site fidelity and networks representing home range overlap and social associations among individual caribou. We found that home range overlap and social associations were correlated with resource distribution in summer and conspecific attraction in winter. In summer, when resources were distributed relatively homogeneously, interannual site fidelity was high and home range overlap and social associations were low. Conversely, in winter when resources were distributed relatively heterogeneously, interannual site fidelity was low and home range overlap and social associations were high. As access to resources changes across seasons, caribou appear to alter social behavior and space use. In summer, caribou may use cues associated with the distribution of forage, and in winter caribou may use cues from conspecifics to access forage. Our results have broad implications for our understanding of caribou socioecology, suggesting that caribou use season‐specific strategies to locate forage. Caribou populations continue to decline globally, and our finding that conspecific attraction is likely related to access to forage suggests that further fragmentation of caribou habitat could limit social association among caribou, particularly in winter when access to resources may be limited.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Space use and social association in a gregarious ungulate: Testing the conspecific attraction and resource dispersion hypotheses

Peignier

Webber

Koen

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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“…, Lesmerises et al. ). Consequently, space use can have important impacts on individual survival or recruitment (Brinkman et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of behavioral marginality on survival of an alpine ungulate

2019

Self Cite

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Inter‐individual variability in behavior has been studied extensively for a wide range of species. However, few researchers have considered marginality, defined as the degree to which a choice made by an individual is located at the margins of the distribution of all possible choices available to a particular population. We explored the influence of marginal behaviors on the probability of survival of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou). We used GPS collars to record the movement and fate of 43 caribou and distributed their habitat use behavior along two axes of a multidimensional scaling. We used Cox proportional‐hazards models to evaluate whether marginality had an effect on mortality risk. We found that individuals that exhibited marginal behavior had higher mortality risk than more conformist individuals. Caribou is a social species; thus, sharing a common habitat use strategy is likely an adaptation for minimizing the risk of predation. Our findings provide an empirical link between behavior and survival, contributing to our understanding of the decline of Rangifer across much of its Canadian distribution.

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Are fission–fusion dynamics consistent among populations? A large‐scale study with Cape buffalo

Wielgus

Cornélis

Garine‐Wichatitsky

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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Fission–fusion dynamics allow animals to manage costs and benefits of group living by adjusting group size. The degree of intraspecific variation in fission–fusion dynamics across the geographical range is poorly known. During 2008–2016, 38 adult female Cape buffalo were equipped with GPS collars in three populations located in different protected areas (Gonarezhou National Park and Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe; Kruger National Park, South Africa) to investigate the patterns and environmental drivers of fission–fusion dynamics among populations. We estimated home range overlap and fission and fusion events between Cape buffalo dyads. We investigated the temporal dynamics of both events at daily and seasonal scales and examined the influence of habitat and distance to water on event location. Fission–fusion dynamics were generally consistent across populations: Fission and fusion periods lasted on average between less than one day and three days. However, we found seasonal differences in the underlying patterns of fission and fusion, which point out the likely influence of resource availability and distribution in time on group dynamics: During the wet season, Cape buffalo split and associated more frequently and were in the same or in a different subgroup for shorter periods. Cape buffalo subgroups were more likely to merge than to split in open areas located near water, but overall vegetation and distance to water were very poor predictors of where fission and fusion events occurred. This study is one of the first to quantify fission–fusion dynamics in a single species across several populations with a common methodology, thus robustly questioning the behavioral flexibility of fission–fusion dynamics among environments.

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Landscape knowledge is an important driver of the fission dynamics of an alpine ungulate

Cited by 16 publications

References 57 publications

Space use and social association in a gregarious ungulate: Testing the conspecific attraction and resource dispersion hypotheses

Space use and social association in a gregarious ungulate: Testing the conspecific attraction and resource dispersion hypotheses

Effect of behavioral marginality on survival of an alpine ungulate

Are fission–fusion dynamics consistent among populations? A large‐scale study with Cape buffalo

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