Circadian periodicity in space use by ungulates of temperate regions: how much, when, and why?

1. When they visit and revisit specific areas, animals may reveal what they need from their home range and how they acquire information. The temporal dimension of such movement recursions, i.e., periodicity, is however rarely studied, yet potentially bears a species, population, or individual-specific signature. 2. A recent method allows estimating the contribution of periodic patterns to the variance in a movement path. We applied it to 709 individuals from 5 ungulate species, looking for species signatures in the form of seasonal variation in the intensity of circadian patterns. 3. Circadian patterns were commonplace in the movement tracks, but the amount of variance they explained was highly variable among individuals. It increased in intensity during spring and summer, when key resources were spatially segregated, and decreased during winter, when food availability was more uniformly low. Other periodicity-inducing mechanisms supported by our comparison of species- and sex-specific ...

1. 当动物造访并重复到访特定区域时，其行为可揭示其对家域（home range）的需求，以及其获取相关信息的路径。然而这类往复移动行为的时间维度——即周期性（periodicity）——却鲜有研究，但其潜在蕴含着物种、种群乃至个体特异性的特征标记。
2. 近期开发的一种方法可量化周期性模式对动物移动路径方差的贡献程度。本研究将该方法应用于5个有蹄类（ungulate）物种的709个个体，旨在通过昼夜节律（circadian patterns）模式强度的季节变化，探寻物种特异性的特征标记。
3. 昼夜节律（circadian patterns）模式在动物移动轨迹中十分普遍，但其所解释的方差占比在个体间差异极大。该模式的强度在春季和夏季有所增强——此时关键资源的空间分布较为分散——而在冬季则有所减弱——此时食物可获得性普遍偏低且分布均匀。本研究通过对物种及性别特异性……的比较，还证实了其他诱导周期性产生的机制。