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Animal spatial ecology

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Animal location data provide essential information on how animals behave and how they interact with each other, with other species, and with their environment. This knowledge can improve our understanding of key ecological and management questions relating to predator-prey dynamics, population dynamics, pest-native species interactions, and pests as disease vectors.

New telemetry technology has led to an exponential increase in the amount of animal location data gathered in New Zealand and overseas.

What can the Animal Movements Group do?

Specialised expertise is often required to maximise the benefits derived from animal location data. The Animal Movements Group brings together wildlife biologists and quantitative ecologists, and aims to assist collaborators with:

The design of movement ecology studies

Clearly articulated a priori biological questions determine the type of animal location data required, as well as additional data requirements. Planning on how the data will be analysed should also occur at the start of a study.

Analysis of animal location data

Detailed animal location datasets are already being collected as part of existing monitoring programmes. We aim to provide expertise to conduct sophisticated analyses of animal movements, dispersal, habitat selection and interactions with conspecifics and with other species. The aim is to maximise the knowledge that can be gained from these detailed datasets.

Team

The Animal Movements Group was set up by Landcare Research in 2013 to provide expertise in collecting, handling and analysing animal location data.

The group aims to forge national and international collaborations to advance research on the spatial ecology of threatened and pest animal species in New Zealand and overseas. The Group brings together wildlife biologists and quantitative ecologists with a diverse set of skills.

Al Glen

Al Glen

Senior Researcher - Wildlife Ecologist
Wildlife Ecology & Management
Contact
Andrew Gormley

Andrew Gormley

Science Team Leader - Wildlife Ecology & Management
Wildlife Ecology & Management
Contact
Bruce Warburton

Bruce Warburton

Senior Researcher
Wildlife Ecology & Management
Contact
Dean Anderson

Dean Anderson

Senior Researcher - Ecological Modeller
Wildlife Ecology & Management
Contact
Grant Norbury

Grant Norbury

Senior Researcher
Wildlife Ecology & Management
Contact

Publications

Anderson DP, Forester JD, Turner MG. 2008. When to slow down: elk residency rates on a heterogeneous landscape. Journal of Mammalogy 89:105-114.

Anderson DP, Forester JD, Turner MG, Frair JL, Merrill EH, Fortin D, Mao SJ,  Boyce MS. 2005. Factors influencing seasonal home-range size in elk (Cervus elaphus) in North American landscapes. Landscape Ecology 20:257-271.

Anderson DP, Turner MG, Forester JD, Zhu J, Boyce MS, Beyer H, Stowell L. 2005. Scale-dependent summer resource selection by reintroduced elk in Wisconsin, U.S.A. Journal of Wildlife Management 69:298-310.

Byrom AE 2002. Dispersal and survival of juvenile feral ferrets Mustela furoin New Zealand. Journal of Applied Ecology 39: 67–78.

Cruz J, Sutherland DR, Anderson DP, Glen AS, de Tores P, Leung LK-P. 2013 Antipredator responses of koomal (Trichosurus vulpecula hypoleucus) against introduced and native predators. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology,67, 1329-1338, doi: 10.1007/s00265-013-1561-2.

Glen AS, Dickman CR. 2008. Niche overlap between marsupial and eutherian carnivores: does competition threaten the endangered spotted-tailed quoll? Journal of Applied Ecology 45, 700-707.

Forester JD,  Ives AR, Turner MG, Anderson DP, Fortin D, Beyer HL, Smith DW,  Boyce MS. 2007. Using state-space models to link patterns of elk (Cervus elaphus) movement to landscape characteristics in Yellowstone National Park. Ecological Monographs 77: 285-295.

Latham ADM, Latham MC, Knopff KH, Hebblewhite M, Boutin S. 2013. Wolves, white-tailed deer, and beaver: implications of seasonal prey switching for woodland caribou declines. Ecography. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.00035.x.

Latham ADM, Latham MC, Boyce MS, Boutin S. 2011. Movement responses by wolves to industrial linear features and their effect on woodland caribou in northeastern Alberta. Ecological Applications 21: 2854–2865.

Latham ADM, Latham MC, Boyce MS. 2011. Habitat selection and spatial relationships of black bears (Ursus americanus) with woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in northeastern Alberta. Canadian Journal of Zoology 89: 267–277.

Latham ADM, Latham MC, Boyce MS, Boutin S. 2013. Spatial relationships of sympatric wolves (Canis lupus) and coyotes (C. latrans) with woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) during the calving season in a human-modified boreal landscape. Wildlife Research 40: 250–260.

McCutcheon C, Dann P, Salton M, Renwick L, Hoskins AJ, Gormley AM, Arnould JPY. 2011 The foraging range of little penguins (Eudyptula minor) during winter. Emu111: 321-329.

Norbury GL, Norbury DC, Heyward RP. 1998. Behavioral responses of two predator species to sudden declines in primary prey. The Journal of Wildlife Management 62(1): 45-58.

Pech R, Byrom AE, Anderson D, Thomson C, Coleman M 2010. The effect of poisoned and notional vaccinated buffers on possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) movements: minimising the risk of Tb spread from forest to farmland. Wildlife Research 37: 283-292.

Recio MR, Mathieu R, Latham MC, Latham ADM, Seddon PJ. 2013. Quantifying fine-scale resource selection by introduced European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in ecologically sensitive areas. Biological Invasions 15: 1807–1818.

Stokes VL, Pech RP, Banks PB, Arthur AD. 2004 Foraging behaviour and habitat use by Antechinus flavipes and Sminthopsis murina (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae) in response to predation risk in eucalypt woodland. Biological Conservation117: 331–342.

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