Moorcroft Paul R, Lewis Mark A, Crabtree Robert L
OEB Department, Harvard University, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2006 Jul 7;273(1594):1651-9. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3439.
Patterns of space-use by individuals are fundamental to the ecology of animal populations influencing their social organization, mating systems, demography and the spatial distribution of prey and competitors. To date, the principal method used to analyse the underlying determinants of animal home range patterns has been resource selection analysis (RSA), a spatially implicit approach that examines the relative frequencies of animal relocations in relation to landscape attributes. In this analysis, we adopt an alternative approach, using a series of mechanistic home range models to analyse observed patterns of territorial space-use by coyote packs in the heterogeneous landscape of Yellowstone National Park. Unlike RSAs, mechanistic home range models are derived from underlying correlated random walk models of individual movement behaviour, and yield spatially explicit predictions for patterns of space-use by individuals. As we show here, mechanistic home range models can be used to determine the underlying determinants of animal home range patterns, incorporating both movement responses to underlying landscape heterogeneities and the effects of behavioural interactions between individuals. Our analysis indicates that the spatial arrangement of coyote territories in Yellowstone is determined by the spatial distribution of prey resources and an avoidance response to the presence of neighbouring packs. We then show how the fitted mechanistic home range model can be used to correctly predict observed shifts in the patterns of coyote space-use in response to perturbation.
个体的空间利用模式是动物种群生态学的基础，影响着它们的社会组织、交配系统、种群统计学以及猎物和竞争者的空间分布。迄今为止，用于分析动物家域模式潜在决定因素的主要方法是资源选择分析（RSA），这是一种空间隐含方法，研究动物重新定位相对于景观属性的相对频率。在本分析中，我们采用另一种方法，使用一系列机制性家域模型来分析黄石国家公园异质景观中郊狼群体观察到的领地空间利用模式。与资源选择分析不同，机制性家域模型源自个体运动行为的潜在相关随机游走模型，并对个体的空间利用模式产生空间明确的预测。正如我们在此所示，机制性家域模型可用于确定动物家域模式的潜在决定因素，纳入对潜在景观异质性的运动反应以及个体间行为相互作用的影响。我们的分析表明，黄石郊狼领地的空间布局由猎物资源的空间分布以及对相邻群体存在的回避反应决定。然后我们展示了拟合的机制性家域模型如何用于正确预测观察到的郊狼空间利用模式因扰动而发生的变化。
