New software predicts the movements of large land animals

Date:
November 3, 2021
Source:
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv)
Halle-Jena- Leipzig
Summary:
New software helps determine the movements of large wild animals
thereby minimizing conflicts with people. The software is simpler
than measurements obtained using radio transmitters and can be
used where conventional methods fail.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Large land animals have a significant impact on the ecology and
biodiversity of the areas they inhabit and traverse. If, for example,
the routes and stopping places of cattle, horses, sheep, and also those
of wolves or bears overlap with those of people, this often leads to
conflicts. Knowing and being able to predict the movement patterns of
animals is, therefore, of utmost relevance.

This is not only necessary for nature and landscape protection, and to safeguard agriculture and forestry, but also for the safety of human
travellers and the security of human infrastructures.


========================================================================== Example -- the brown bear The Abruzzo region of Italy, the location of
the Sirente Velino Regional Park, is home to the endangered and therefore protected Marsican brown bear (Ursus arctos marsicanus). Recording the
bears' patterns of movement in the 50,000 hectare, partly populated area
is especially important for their own protection, but also for that
of the people living there and the sensitive flora. Movement pattern
maps can be used to determine the bears' roaming routes and places of
refuge more effectively. These can then be adequately protected and,
if necessary, adjusted.

Traditional methods are expensive Traditional maps of animal movements
are mostly based on long-term surveys of so-called telemetry data;
this comes from individuals fitted with radio transmitters. This type
of map-making is often time consuming and expensive, and lack of radio
contact in some areas means that no data can be collected at all. That
was also the case in the vast and isolated Sirente Velino national park.

Researchers developed an alternative Researchers from iDiv, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Aarhus University and the University of Oxford
have developed software - named 'enerscape' -- with which maps can be
created easily and cost-effectively. Dr Emilio Berti is post-doctoral researcher with the Theory in Biodiversity Science research group at
iDiv and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. As first author of the
study he stressed: "What's special is that the software requires very
little data as a basis." The energy an animal needs to expend to travel
a certain distance is calculated, based on the weight of that animal
and its general movement behaviour. This energy expenditure is then
integrated with the topographical information of an area. "From this information we can then create 'energy landscape maps' for individuals
as well as for groups of animals. Our maps are calculated rather than
measured and thus represent a cost-effective alternative to traditional
maps. In particular applications, such as the conditions in the Italian national park, our method makes the creation of movement pattern maps
actually possible at all," said Berti.

Software helps with the designation of protection zones Using enerscape,
the researchers found that bears choose paths that require less energy expenditure. These paths often lead through settlements, so that the
bears encounter humans -- which frequently ends fatally for the animals.

The software also predicts, that bears wanting to save energy will tend to
stay in valleys, far away from human settlements. Bear conflict as well
as protection zones can now be identified using enerscape. Its maps can
also be used to check whether landscape elements are still well-connected enough to enable the animals to move around the area sufficiently.

enerscape is freely available and adaptable The researchers' software
enerscape is based on the widely used and openly accessible programming language 'R'. It has a modular structure and can therefore process
animal movement and topographical data from a wide variety of ecosystem
types. "This makes it possible for both researchers and wildlife managers
to adapt the software to a wide variety of landscapes and animals,"
said Prof Fritz Vollrath from the Zoology Department of the University
of Oxford and senior author of the study, emphasising the special nature
of enerscape. "This means that the number of maps of animal movement in landscapes will increase in just a short time. With significantly more cartographical data, the understanding of the behavioural ecology of a
species in a certain habitat will also fundamentally change. This will primarily benefit nature conservation and, in particular, rewilding
measures -- the reintroduction of wild animals," said Vollrath.

The development of enerscape was supported by iDiv which is funded by
the German Research Foundation. In addition, enerscape is part of the
VILLUM Investigator project 'Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World',
which is funded by the Danish VILLUM Foundation and its 'Independent
Research Fund Denmark | Natural Sciences Project MegaComplexity'.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by German_Centre_for_Integrative_Biodiversity_Research_
(iDiv)_Halle-Jena-Leipzig. Note: Content may be edited for style and
length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Emilio Berti, Marco Davoli, Robert Buitenwerf, Alexander Dyer,
Oskar L.

P. Hansen, Myriam Hirt, Jens‐Christian Svenning,
Jo"rdis F. Terlau, Ulrich Brose, Fritz Vollrath. The r package
enerscape A general energy landscape framework for terrestrial
movement ecology. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 2021; DOI:
10.1111/2041-210X.13734 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211103105019.htm

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