Homing through ecological barriers in Balkan pond turtles

Homing behaviour, the tendency to return home from a place outside an individual’s home range, requires an ability to navigate by integrating inputs from natural cues. While navigation has been extensively studied, it remains taxonomically biased, mainly focusing on birds. We used the ATLAS tracking system to test homing behaviour in the Balkan pond turtle (Mauremys rivulata), a semi-aquatic reptile. Thirty-six turtles were displaced up to 2.5 km from their capture location and tracked to test for homing behaviour. Another five individuals were released in their capture location as a baseline for local movement. A correlated random-walk model was developed, simulating movement patterns fitted to match turtle movements. Most displaced turtles successfully returned or headed towards their home range within 1–3 days, traveling significantly greater daily distances Homing turtles showed a more direct, and shorter delay than simulated or undisplaced turtles. Our high-resolution tracking reve..., , , # Homing through ecological barriers in Balkan pond turtles

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.p5hqbzkzq](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.p5hqbzkzq)

## Description of the data and file structure

*Localizations from ATLAS transmitters:*

Turtles were tagged with ATLAS transmitters, a radio tracking system which provides high resolution localizations in real time using lightweight, low-cost tags. This study is the first to ever deploy ATLAS tags on reptiles, in this case, taking the technology to the extreme (close to the ground or water surface). The sample frequency of the transmitter was configured to 1 Hz to maximize the chance of detection when the individual is above the water surface.

*Data filtering and analysis:*

Movement analysis procedures were executed in R (R Development Core Team). Tracking data was filtered by velocity (10 m/sec) and Std (20 m). Following this filter, we applied a geographic filter, including the interception of data points, with a water body layer created i...,