The level of habitat patchiness influences movement strategy of moose in Eastern Poland

Abstract

Spatio-temporal variation in resource availability leads to a variety of animal movement strategies. In the case of ungulates, temporally unpredictable landscapes are associated with nomadism, while high predictability in the resource distribution favours migratory or sedentary behaviours depending on the spatial and temporal scale of landscape dynamics. As most of the surveys on moose (Alces alces) movement behaviours in Europe have been conducted on Scandinavian populations, little is known about the movement strategies of moose at the southern edge of the species' range. We expected that decreasing habitat patchiness in central Europe would be associated with the prevalence of migratory behaviours. To verify this hypothesis, we analysed 32 moose fitted with GPS collars from two study areas in eastern Poland which differed in a level of habitat patchiness. We classified moose movements using the net squared displacement method. As presumed, lower patchiness in the Biebrza study site was associated with the predominance of individuals migrating short-distance, while in more patchy landscape of Polesie, resident moose dominated. At the individual level, the propensity of moose to migrate decreased with increasing abundance of forest habitats in their summer ranges. In addition, the parameters (migration distance, timing and duration) for migratory individuals varied substantially between individuals and years. Yet, in spring individual moose expressed a consistent migration timing across years. There was little synchronization of migration timing between individuals from the same population both in spring and autumn, which may have been related to mild weather conditions. We observed that moose postponed their migrations and started movement toward summer ranges at a similar time window in years when spring was delayed due to harsh weather. Hence, in light of global warming, we presume further changes in animal movements will arise.

Sex-biased polyparasitism in moose (Alces alces) based on molecular analysis of faecal samples

“…Additionally, the majority of individuals were infected with several parasite species, and males had significantly higher parasite species richness than females. High population density exceeding 1.5 ind/km 2 ( Raczyński and Ratkiewicz, 2011 ) and a significant percentage of migratory individuals within the study area ( Borowik et al, 2020 ) may promote the spread of parasitic infections and high level of parasitism in the population from the Biebrza valley. Management of this genetically distinct ( Świsłocka et al, 2008 ; Świsłocka et al, 2020 ) and non-harvested for 20 years moose population should include health monitoring programs with investigations of parasite status.…”

“…Seventy two fresh samples of moose faeces were collected in winter (from November 2012 to March 2013) in the Biebrza River valley (22 °35′E, 53 °26′N), North-Eastern Poland. The majority of samples were collected from moose individuals localized by GPS-tracking (25 collared individuals; for details see Borowik et al, 2020 ). Some samples were also collected from occasionally encountered individuals during field visits.…”

The declining occurrence of moose (Alces alces) at the southernmost edge of its range raise conservation concerns

“…Additionally, we evaluated differences in the distances of the moose records from key land cover categories: artificial surfaces as potential barrier and threat, broad-leaved forest as a preferred habitat for foraging and hiding, natural grassland and shrubs for foraging, wetlands, and waterbodies as habitats for hiding and avoiding heat stress (Borowik et al, 2018(Borowik et al, , 2020Beest et al, 2012;Courtois et al, 2002;Melin et al, 2016;Romportl et al, 2017;Tomek, 1977) for each time period. We tested data for normality and used ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis test depending on normality of the data in R software (R Core Team, 2019).…”

“…Thus, in this study, to obtain an accurate picture of the history and status of the moose population, we collected all available occurrence data from the region to (a) evaluate changes in moose distribution in the study area; (b) identify the main causes of mortality; and (c) analyze habitat selection to model the extent of suitable habitat. We expected that landscapes with water bodies, wetlands, and a heterogeneous mosaic of shrubs, meadows, and forests provide suitable habitat for the moose population (Beest et al, 2012;Borowik et al, 2018Borowik et al, , 2020Courtois et al, 2002;Melin et al, 2016;Romportl et al, 2017;Tomek, 1977), while anthropogenic structures would reduce the amount and connectivity of available habitat (Bragina et al, 2018;Mrlík, 1995;Ree et al, 2015;Seiler, 2005;Strnad et al, 2012).…”

Too hot to handle: summer space use shift in a cold-adapted ungulate at the edge of its range

“…Our dataset comprised summer (June 1-August 31) locations of GPS collared adult moose in Biebrza NP -24 moose (13 females and 11 males) and in Polesie NP -12 individuals (10 females and 2 males) in 2012-2016 (Borowik et al 2018(Borowik et al , 2020. Out of all positions, we chose only fixes registered at 1 h intervals that led to a final database of 139,948 fixes in Biebrza NP and 32,652 positions in Polesie NP.…”