Variability in the movement and foraging behaviour of female Eurasian lynx during the denning season across Europe

Animal movement and reproductive behaviour are crucial components of ecological and evolutionary processes. After parturition, the behaviour of reproducing females adapts to the needs of their offspring, including thermoregulation, protection, and food provisioning. However, little is known about how these adaptations vary across environmental conditions at larger scales in species with large distribution ranges. Here, we explored how female Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) movement and predation patterns change during the denning season. We analysed GPS telemetry data from two different climatic regions in Europe, cold and temperate, and evaluated the effect of explanatory variables on movement metrics and kill-to-den distances using generalized additive mixed models. Female lynx moved significantly longer daily distances in the cold region (central and northern Scandinavia) compared to the temperate region (southern Scandinavia and continental Europe), both before and after parturition. Reproducing females in both regions considerably reduced their movement after the start of the denning season. The typical pattern of increasing daily movements and decreasing time spent at the den with time persisted across regions, and the presence of females at the den followed a similar circadian rhythm, regardless of the markedly different daylight period. Only in the cold region females increased the distances of their excursions from the den as time passed. The distances between den and kill sites spanned from 1 to 3 km over the latitudinal range. The kill-to-den distances did not increase with time, but in the cold region the larger prey killsites were farther from the den than in the temperate region. Overall, our results show how some behaviours of female lynx during the denning season remain constant over a large latitudinal range, while others vary. This suggests local adaptations to particular environments, and possible increased energetic demands of reproducing females in more extreme environmental conditions.

动物的运动与繁殖行为是生态与进化过程的核心组成部分。雌性个体分娩后，其行为会适配幼崽的需求，包括体温调节、防御保护与食物供给。然而，对于分布范围广泛的物种而言，这类行为适应如何随大尺度环境条件发生变化，目前仍知之甚少。本研究探究了欧亚猞猁（Lynx lynx）雌性个体在育幼洞穴期的运动与捕食模式变化。我们分析了欧洲寒冷与温带两个不同气候区域的GPS遥测数据，并借助广义加性混合模型（generalized additive mixed models），评估了解释变量对运动指标以及猎物捕杀点至巢穴距离的影响。无论分娩前还是分娩后，寒冷区域（斯堪的纳维亚半岛中部与北部）的雌性猞猁每日移动距离均显著长于温带区域（斯堪的纳维亚半岛南部与欧洲大陆）。两个气候区域的繁殖雌性个体在育幼洞穴期开始后，其移动距离均显著降低。随时间推移，每日移动距离增加、巢穴停留时间减少的典型模式在两个区域均保持一致；且雌性个体在巢穴的出现规律遵循相似的昼夜节律，不受显著差异的日照时长影响。仅在寒冷区域，雌性个体远离巢穴的活动距离随时间推移而增加。在整个纬度梯度范围内，巢穴与捕杀点的距离介于1至3千米之间。猎物捕杀点至巢穴的距离并未随时间推移而增加，但在寒冷区域，大型猎物的捕杀点距离巢穴的位置要比温带区域更远。综合来看，本研究结果表明，雌性猞猁在育幼洞穴期的部分行为在大纬度梯度范围内保持稳定，而另一部分行为则存在差异。这提示它们会针对特定环境产生局部适应，且在更为极端的环境条件下，繁殖雌性个体的能量需求可能更高。