Data from: From steps to home range formation: species-specific movement upscaling among sympatric ungulates

Animals move to interact with the environment in order to find food
resources and cover. Intrinsic characteristics affecting feeding and
antipredatory strategies likely shape variation in movement patterns and
home range formation between individuals, populations and species.
Browsing herbivores selectively forage on patchily distributed resources
in areas with more canopy cover, whereas mixed feeders and grazers feed on
more open grasslands and tend to aggregate as an antipredatory strategy.
We therefore predicted that at small temporal scales, browsers will show
greater net displacements (i.e. typical of searching patterns) than mixed
feeders or grazers; but at larger temporal scales, we expect the opposite
pattern, since gregarious species will need to use larger areas to feed
the whole herd. We also predicted that the feeding/antipredatory strategy
will determine the behavioural responses to other environmental factors.
To test this, we compared spatial movement patterns at multiple scales
(from 20-min intervals to annual home ranges) of three sympatric,
similar-sized, alpine ungulates which differ in their
feeding/antipredatory strategy: roe deer (solitary browsers), mouflon
(gregarious grazers) and chamois (intermediate feeders in smaller groups).
We used location data from GPS-collared females of the three species in
the French Alps. As predicted, we found that multi-scale spatial patterns
depended on the feeding/antipredatory strategy. Browsers foraged within
smaller range areas, searching back and forth. Mixed feeders and,
especially, grazers covered larger areas, presumably to satisfy herd
needs. The feeding/antipredatory strategies also determined the
interspecific variability in behavioural responses to factors such as
maternal status, weather, habitat type or human disturbance, supporting
our hypothesis. Exploring interspecific variability, we showed how
movement behaviour and home range formation vary substantially, even among
species within the same guild. This mechanism might be important to
maintain intra-guild multi-species associations and increase biodiversity,
through contributing to niche segregation and, thus, coexistence.