Spur-winged lapwings show spatial behavioral types with different mobility and exploration between urban and rural individuals

Understanding how wildlife responds to the spread of human-dominated habitats is a major challenge in ecology. It is still poorly understood how urban areas affect wildlife space-use patterns and consistent intra-specific behavioral differences (i.e., behavioral types; BTs), which in turn shape various ecological processes. To address these questions, we investigated the movements of a common resident wader, the spur-winged lapwing (Vanellus spinosus), hypothesizing that urban individuals will be more mobile than rural ones. We used an ATLAS tracking system to track many (n=135) individuals at a high resolution (8 second-fix interval) over several months each. We first established that daily movement indices show consistent differences among individuals, acting as spatial-BTs. Then focusing on the two main principle-components of lapwings’ daily-movements – mobility and position along the exploration-exploitation gradient– we investigated how these BTs are shaped by urbanization, season..., For movement tracking we captured nesting lapwings during 2019-2022. We searched the study area for nests and placed a walk-in trap on them. When possible, sex was determined from spur length (males > 10 mm, females < 7 mm), and otherwise by means of genetic markers from a commercial provider, using feather samples collected from all individuals. We used 7g tracking device tags attached in a leg-loop configuration (< 4% of body weight, including harness). A total of 211 transmitters were deployed on 194 individual adult lapwings (2020 = 68, 2021 = 74 and 2022 = 69), including 17 re-captures in subsequent years.
To obtain thetracking data at the high-frequency we used ATLAS (Advanced Tracking and Localization of Animals in real-life Systems). This system is based on a reverse-GPS, in which the bird-borne tags emit a unique-ID signal at set intervals that is detected by an array of fixed base-stations (tower-mounted antennas) deployed at high vantage points in the region. Signals..., , # Vanellus\_spinosus\_Movement\_Behavior\_Metadata:

This dataset contains daily movement indices used in the manuscript titled: *\"Spur-winged lapwings show spatial behavioral types with different mobility and exploration between urban and rural individuals\"*

**Research Approach**:\
We focused on the spur-winged lapwing (*Vanellus spinosus*), a common resident species in diverse habitats. We tagged breeding lapwings residing in the Harod Valley, northeastern Israel, and calculated their urbanization scores by analyzing the percentage of built-up area around their nests within their 50% KDE home range. Birds were classified as urban if 60% or more of their core home range consisted of built-up areas.

We then analyzed daily movement patterns for each bird, assessing the repeatability of these behaviors. Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), we extracted two key behavioral indices: mobility (PC1) and exploration (PC2).

Finally, we explored how movement behaviors differed between bir...