Old tricks-new opportunities: combining telemetry ellipses and landscape metrics to assess habitat spatial structure
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Old tricks-new opportunities: combining telemetry ellipses and landscape metrics to assess habitat spatial structure Alison R. Menefee . Humberto L. Perotto-Baldivieso . William P. Kuvlesky Jr. . Leonard A. Brennan . J. Alfonso Ortega-S. . Michael T. Page . Julia K. Burchsted
Received: 21 May 2020 / Accepted: 16 November 2020 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Context Confidence ellipses are areas derived from telemetry data that can be used to assess daily habitat use when integrated with land cover spatial structure. Our goal was to assess the feasibility of using confidence ellipses derived from telemetry data to assess landscape structure. Objectives Our objectives were (1) to identify the geometry of confidence ellipses that can be used in landscape level studies; and (2) to quantify landscape structure within confidence ellipses derived from telemetry data. We used Rio Grande wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo intermedia) as our model species. Methods We simulated landscapes and clipped them using known confidence ellipse shapes. We then compared the clipped areas with values measured for our simulated landscapes using landscape metrics that describe landscape structure. We used these results to select ellipse derived from telemetry data to evaluate landscape structure used by wild turkeys during the breeding and wintering seasons in South Texas.
A. R. Menefee H. L. Perotto-Baldivieso (&) W. P. Kuvlesky Jr. L. A. Brennan J. A. Ortega-S. M. T. Page J. K. Burchsted Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, 700 University Blvd, MSC 218, Kingsville, TX 78363, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Results Ellipses with a low x/y ratio (\ 0.38) had significant differences from simulated landscape measurements. This information was used to remove wild turkey ellipses that did not meet the simulation criteria. Our results suggest that wild turkeys in South Texas used larger, more aggregated and interconnected patches of woody cover during the wintering season than during the breeding season. Conclusions Landscape simulations facilitate the understanding of how landscape sampling strategies may be affected by sampling shape models. The integration of wildlife telemetry data with landscape ecology approaches and remote sensing were important in identifying spatial patterns used by wildlife. Keywords Confidence ellipses Landscape ecology Landscape metrics Radiotelemetry Simulations
Introduction Radiotelemetry has been used in wildlife studies for over 60 years to assess animal locations and habitat resources utilization (Cochran and Lord 1963; Hebblewhite and Haydon 2010). There have been numerous worldwide studies documented using radiotelemetry approaches and it has proven to be an effective tool to assess landscape spatial structure use by wildlife (e.g. White and Garrott 1986; Russo et al.
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1997; Belcher and Darrant 2004; Seryodkin et al. 2013). Prior to the late 1960s, radiotelemetry triangulations were
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