Something in the wind: The influence of wind speed and direction on African lion movement behaviour

Olfaction is a key sense, enabling animals to locate forage, select mates,
navigate their environment, and avoid predation. Wind is an important
abiotic factor that modulates the strength of olfactory information
detected by animals. In theory, when airflow is unidirectional, an animal
can maximise the size of their olfactory search area and increase odour
detection probability by moving crosswind. Given energetic costs inherent
to activity and locomotion, behavioural search strategies that optimize
the benefit-cost ratio should be advantageous. We tested whether African
lions (Panthera leo) modify their movement directionality and distance
according to wind speed and direction during hours of darkness when they
are most likely to hunt mobile and elusive prey. We tracked 29 lions in
southern Zimbabwe using GPS collars and deployed a weather station to
collect detailed abiotic data. We found that when wind speeds increased
lions were more likely to move crosswind. We also found that female lions,
which tend to hunt more often than males, travelled farther when wind
speeds were stronger. The results of our analysis suggest that lions adapt
their movement behaviour according to wind speed and direction. We
inferred that this was a behavioural decision to maximise the amount of
olfactory information gained per unit of energy spent. Our findings not
only offer one of the first detailed insights on large carnivore
anemotaxis (movement direction relative to wind) but also make an
important contribution towards understanding the influence of wind on
predator ecology in general which remains understudied to date. Keywords:
Panthera Leo, anemotaxis, wind, movement behaviour, olfaction