Habitat characteristics of raccoon dog observations at multiple spatial scales

Habitat characteristics (habitat type, distance to roads and water, elevation, slope, and length of growing season) for raccoon dog GPS-locations (Scale = 0) and paired random points located within a given distance (Scale > 0 m). Data is aggregated per individual trajectory, season, and light period (day, night, twilight). For further details, see the article

Daily location for 55 GPS-marked raccoon dogs in Northern Sweden.

<p>The long-distance trajectories north and west are dispersal events from separate individuals.</p

Habitat selection at two spatial scales for raccoon dogs in northern Sweden.

<p>Bars represent 95% credible interval based on 10 000 MCMC resampling of the posterior distribution of the parameter estimates. Filled symbols represent habitat selection at the 500 m spatial scale, whereas open symbols represent habitat selection at the 5000 m spatial scale. A positive value indicates that the probability of use is higher for high values of the explanatory variable whereas a negative value indicates that the probability of use decreased with increasing value of the explanatory variable. The first column is the overall habitat selection for all individuals, where black symbols and bars indicate a significant selection (i.e. the 95% CI does not include zero). In the next three columns, interactions between the landscape variable and movement state, season and light period are shown, where black symbols indicate significant difference in habitat selection between the groups at a given spatial scale.</p

Overall use of habitat types and landscape characteristics by raccoon dogs in Sweden.

<p>"Obs" refers to GPS-locations, whereas the spatial scales are points (1 random point per GPS-location) randomly located within a given distance from the GPS-location. Grey symbols indicate that the value at the spatial scale was not significantly different from the values at the GPS-locations whereas black symbols indicate significant differences. Significance was obtained by 95% credible intervals from 10 000 MCMC resamplings of a mixed model with raccoon dog identity and treatment number as random factors. Bars represent standard error of the parameter estimate from the mixed model.</p

Parameter estimates on habitat use with respect to sex, movement state, season, and light regime in raccoon dogs in northern Sweden.

<p>Bars represent 95% credible interval based on 10 000 MCMC resampling of the posterior distribution of the parameter estimates. Grey symbols and bars indicate no significant (<i>P</i> > 0.05) difference between the groups, i.e. adding the covariate (sex, movement state, season, or light period) did not improve a null model (including only intercept). Black symbols and bars indicate a significant improvement of the model by adding the covariate.</p

Details regarding the meta-analysis of home range size in ungulates from Home ranges, habitat and body mass: simple correlates of home range size in ungulates

The spatial scale of animal space use, e.g. measured as individual home range size, is a key trait with important implications for ecological and evolutionary processes as well as management and conservation of populations and ecosystems. Explaining variation in home range size has therefore received great attention in ecological research. However, few studies have examined multiple hypotheses simultaneously, which is important provided the complex interactions between life history, social system and behaviour. Here, we review previous studies on home range size in ungulates, supplementing with a meta-analysis, to assess how differences in habitat use and species characteristics affect the relationship between body mass and home range size. Habitat type was the main factor explaining interspecific differences in home range size after accounting for species body mass and group size. Species using open habitats had larger home ranges for a given body mass than species using closed habitats, whereas species in open landscapes showed a much weaker allometric relationship compared with species living in closed landscapes. We found no support for relationships between home range size and species diet or mating system, or any sexual differences. These patterns suggest that the spatial scale of animal movement mainly is a combined effect of body mass, group size and the landscape structure. Accordingly, landscape management must acknowledge the influence of spatial distribution of habitat types on animal behaviour to ensure natural processes affecting demography and viability of ungulate populations

Appendix A. Environmental and population characteristics recorded during the study period, 1991–2003, for 14 Norwegian moose populations.

Environmental and population characteristics recorded during the study period, 1991–2003, for 14 Norwegian moose populations

Index Files

Index File

Movement and Growth

Individual movement and growth data in each tributary given together with the associated mean family egg mass and metabolic rate

Apparent survival

Proportional recapture (apparent survival) of each each Atlantic salmon family in each of the tributaries. Associated family egg metabolism and mass is given