Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, 180 E Green Street, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, 700 University Blvd., Kingsville, TX 78363, USA.
Biol Open. 2023 Oct 15;12(10). doi: 10.1242/bio.059932. Epub 2023 Oct 16.
Visual perception is dynamic and depends on physiological properties of a species' visual system and physical characteristics of the environment. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are most sensitive to short- and mid-wavelength light (e.g. blue and green). Wavelength enrichment varies spatially and temporally across the landscape. We assessed how the visual perception of deer influences their movement decisions. From August to September 2019, we recorded 10-min locations from 15 GPS-collared adult male deer in Central Florida. We used Hidden-Markov models to identify periods of movement by deer and subset these data into three time periods based on temporal changes in light environments. We modeled resource selection during movement using path-selection functions and simulated 10 available paths for every path used. We developed five a priori models and used 10-fold cross validation to assess our top model's performance for each time period. During the day, deer selected to move through woodland shade, avoided forest shade, and neither selected nor avoided small gaps. At twilight, deer avoided wetlands as cloud cover increased but neither selected nor avoided other cover types. Visual cues and signals are likely more conspicuous to deer in short-wavelength-enriched woodland shade during the day, while at twilight in long-wavelength-enriched wetlands during cloud cover, visual cues are likely less conspicuous. The nocturnal light environment did not influence resource selection and likely has little effect on deer movements because it's relatively homogenous. Our findings suggest visual perception relative to light environments is likely an underappreciated driver of behaviors and decision-making by an ungulate prey species.
视觉感知是动态的，取决于物种视觉系统的生理特性和环境的物理特征。白尾鹿（Odocoileus virginianus）对短波长和中波长的光（如蓝色和绿色）最敏感。波长丰富度在景观上随时间和空间变化而变化。我们评估了鹿的视觉感知如何影响它们的移动决策。2019 年 8 月至 9 月，我们记录了佛罗里达州中部 15 只 GPS 项圈成年雄性鹿的 10 分钟位置。我们使用隐马尔可夫模型识别鹿的移动时段，并根据光照环境的时间变化将这些数据分为三个时段。我们使用路径选择函数来模拟移动过程中的资源选择，并为每条使用的路径模拟 10 条可用路径。我们开发了五个先验模型，并使用 10 倍交叉验证来评估每个时段我们的顶级模型的性能。白天，鹿选择穿过林地阴影移动，避开森林阴影，既不选择也不避免小间隙。在黄昏时，随着云量增加，鹿避开湿地，但既不选择也不避免其他覆盖类型。在白天，短波长丰富的林地阴影中，视觉线索和信号可能对鹿更明显，而在黄昏时，云层覆盖的长波长丰富的湿地中，视觉线索可能不那么明显。夜间的光照环境不会影响资源选择，并且可能对鹿的移动几乎没有影响，因为它相对均匀。我们的研究结果表明，相对于光照环境的视觉感知可能是一种被低估的行为和决策驱动因素，适用于有蹄类猎物物种。
