干旱区生态环境知识资源中心(Arid): Fine-Scale Tracking of Ambient Temperature and Movement Reveals Shuttling Behavior of Elephants to Water

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DOI	10.3389/fevo.2019.00004
	Fine-Scale Tracking of Ambient Temperature and Movement Reveals Shuttling Behavior of Elephants to Water
	Thaker, Maria 1,2; Gupte, Pratik R.1,3,4,5; Prins, Herbert H. T.6; Slotow, Rob 2,7; Vanak, Abi T.2,3,8
通讯作者	Thaker, Maria
来源期刊	FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
ISSN	2296-701X
出版年	2019
卷号	7
英文摘要	Movement strategies of animals have been well studied as a function of ecological drivers (e.g., forage selection and avoiding predation) rather than physiological requirements (e.g., thermoregulation). Thermal stress is a major concern for large mammals, especially for savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana), which have amongst the greatest challenge for heat dissipation in hot and arid environments. Therefore, elephants must make decisions about where and how fast to move to reduce thermal stress. We tracked 14 herds of elephant in Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa, for 2 years, using GPS collars with inbuilt temperature sensors to examine the influence of temperature on movement strategies, particularly when accessing water. We first confirmed that collar-mounted temperature loggers captured hourly variation in relative ambient temperatures across the landscape, and, thus, could be used to predict elephant movement strategies at fine spatio-temporal scales. We found that elephants moved slower in more densely wooded areas, but, unexpectedly, moved faster at higher temperatures, especially in the wet season compared to the dry season. Notably, this speed of movement was highest when elephants were approaching and leaving water sources. Visits to water showed a periodic shuttling pattern, with a peak return rate of 10-30 h, wherein elephants were closest to water during the hotter times of the day, and spent longer at water sources in the dry season compared to the wet season. When elephants left water, they showed low fidelity to the same water source, and traveled farther in the dry season than in the wet season. In KNP, where water is easily accessible, and the risk of poaching is low, we found that elephants use short, high-speed bursts of movement to get to water at hotter times of day. This strategy not only provides the benefit of predation risk avoidance, but also allows them to use water to thermoregulate. We demonstrate that ambient temperature is an important predictor of movement and water use across the landscape, with elephants responding facultatively to a landscape of thermal stress.
英文关键词	Loxodonta africana thermoregulation GPS telemetry temperature water habitat shuttle
类型	Article
语种	英语
国家	India ; South Africa ; Netherlands ; England
开放获取类型	Green Accepted, gold, Green Published
收录类别	SCI-E
WOS记录号	WOS:000467374200001
WOS关键词	ASIAN ELEPHANTS ; INTERFERENCE COMPETITION ; AFRICAN ELEPHANT ; NATIONAL-PARK ; LANDSCAPE ; HEAT ; SAVANNA ; THERMOREGULATION ; SELECTION ; CLIMATE
WOS类目	Ecology
WOS研究方向	Environmental Sciences & Ecology
来源机构	University of London
资源类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.177/qdio/handle/2XILL650/215754
作者单位	1.Indian Inst Sci, Ctr Ecol Sci, Bangalore, Karnataka, India; 2.Univ Kwazulu Natal, Sch Life Sci, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa; 3.Ashoka Trust Res Ecol & Environm, Bangalore, Karnataka, India; 4.Univ Groningen, Groningen Inst Evolutionary Life Sci, Groningen, Netherlands; 5.Royal Netherlands Inst Sea Res, Dept Coastal Syst, Texel, Netherlands; 6.Wageningen Univ, Resource Ecol Grp, Wageningen, Netherlands; 7.UCL, Dept Genet Evolut & Environm, London, England; 8.DBT Wellcome Trust India Alliance, Hyderabad, India
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Thaker, Maria,Gupte, Pratik R.,Prins, Herbert H. T.,et al. Fine-Scale Tracking of Ambient Temperature and Movement Reveals Shuttling Behavior of Elephants to Water[J]. University of London,2019,7.
APA	Thaker, Maria,Gupte, Pratik R.,Prins, Herbert H. T.,Slotow, Rob,&Vanak, Abi T..(2019).Fine-Scale Tracking of Ambient Temperature and Movement Reveals Shuttling Behavior of Elephants to Water.FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION,7.
MLA	Thaker, Maria,et al."Fine-Scale Tracking of Ambient Temperature and Movement Reveals Shuttling Behavior of Elephants to Water".FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 7(2019).