Migration and movement Flashcards
(14 cards)
Why is movement important in animal responses to environmental change?
Movement is one of the first responses to changes like forest fires, deforestation, farming, and increased CO2.
What is “movement ecology”?
A framework to study animal movement, considering causes, mechanisms, functions, and evolution of movement behavior.
What are Niko Tinbergen’s 4 questions applied to movement?
- Why did the animal respond? (stimulus and response)
- What is the function and fitness consequence?
- How did the behavior develop? (ontogeny)
- How did the behavior evolve?
What factors affect animal movement decisions?
Needs, alternative strategies, chance, movement capacity, resource availability, and whether resources are renewable.
Name some technologies used to record animal movements.
Tagging, marking, biologging, biotelemetry, ringing, pit tags, VHF, ARGOS, GPS, accelerometers, magnetometers, depth sensors.
Define a “movement step.”
A single displacement of an entire body of an organism.
What is a “lifetime track” in movement ecology?
The complete sequence of movement steps of an individual from birth to death.
What metrics are used to analyze movement paths?
Step length (speed), turning angles, net displacement.
Why is understanding animal movement important for conservation?
It helps manage species’ coexistence with humans and informs spatial management plans.
What is the difference between dispersal and migration based on net squared
- Dispersal: one-way movement without return, non-random, often a 3-stage process.
- Migration: directed two-way return movement linking distant are
What is “site fidelity”?
The tendency of an animal to return to or stay within a particular area.
What are some drivers influencing migration decisions?
Migratory mode, age, roads, vegetation productivity, predator presence, harvest pressure, conspecifics.
How do naïve juveniles learn to navigate in migration?
Some disperse alone without parental training, learning to navigate independently.
What is a “random walk” in movement ecology?
A stochastic model describing animal movement as a series of random steps, used to analyze movement data.
