Kölzsch Andrea, Alzate Adriana, Bartumeus Frederic, de Jager Monique, Weerman Ellen J, Hengeveld Geerten M, Naguib Marc, Nolet Bart A, van de Koppel Johan
Department of Animal Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Wageningen, The Netherlands Project Group Movement Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Wageningen, The Netherlands Department of Migration and Immuno-ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
Department of Spatial Ecology, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), Yerseke, The Netherlands Community and Conservation Ecology, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Proc Biol Sci. 2015 May 22;282(1807):20150424. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2015.0424.
Recently, Lévy walks have been put forward as a new paradigm for animal search and many cases have been made for its presence in nature. However, it remains debated whether Lévy walks are an inherent behavioural strategy or emerge from the animal reacting to its habitat. Here, we demonstrate signatures of Lévy behaviour in the search movement of mud snails (Hydrobia ulvae) based on a novel, direct assessment of movement properties in an experimental set-up using different food distributions. Our experimental data uncovered clusters of small movement steps alternating with long moves independent of food encounter and landscape complexity. Moreover, size distributions of these clusters followed truncated power laws. These two findings are characteristic signatures of mechanisms underlying inherent Lévy-like movement. Thus, our study provides clear experimental evidence that such multi-scale movement is an inherent behaviour rather than resulting from the animal interacting with its environment.
最近， Lévy 行走已被提出作为动物搜索的一种新范式，并且有许多实例表明其存在于自然界中。然而，Lévy 行走是一种固有的行为策略还是动物对其栖息地做出反应的结果，仍存在争议。在此，我们基于在使用不同食物分布的实验装置中对运动特性的一种新颖、直接的评估，证明了泥螺（Hydrobia ulvae）搜索运动中的 Lévy 行为特征。我们的实验数据发现，无论是否遇到食物以及景观复杂性如何，都存在小运动步长的簇与长距离移动交替出现的情况。此外，这些簇的大小分布遵循截断幂律。这两个发现是潜在的固有类 Lévy 运动机制的特征标志。因此，我们的研究提供了明确的实验证据，表明这种多尺度运动是一种固有行为，而不是动物与环境相互作用的结果。
