ORCID Profile
0000-0003-2706-6969
Current Organisation
Arizona State University
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Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 13-03-2018
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 09-06-2023
Abstract: COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020 reduced human mobility, providing an opportunity to disentangle its effects on animals from those of landscape modifications. Using GPS data, we compared movements and road avoidance of 2300 terrestrial mammals (43 species) during the lockdowns to the same period in 2019. In idual responses were variable with no change in average movements or road avoidance behavior, likely due to variable lockdown conditions. However, under strict lockdowns 10-day 95th percentile displacements increased by 73%, suggesting increased landscape permeability. Animals’ 1-hour 95th percentile displacements declined by 12% and animals were 36% closer to roads in areas of high human footprint, indicating reduced avoidance during lockdowns. Overall, lockdowns rapidly altered some spatial behaviors, highlighting variable but substantial impacts of human mobility on wildlife worldwide.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-02-2022
DOI: 10.1186/S40462-022-00304-X
Abstract: Asian elephant numbers are declining across much of their range driven largely by serious threats from land use change resulting in habitat loss and fragmentation. Myanmar, holding critical range for the species, is undergoing major developments due to recent sociopolitical changes. To effectively manage and conserve the remaining populations of endangered elephants in the country, it is crucial to understand their ranging behavior. Our objectives were to (1) estimate the sizes of dry, wet, and annual ranges of wild elephants in Myanmar and quantify the relationship between dry season (the period when human-elephant interactions are the most likely to occur) range size and configurations of agriculture and natural vegetation within the range, and (2) evaluate how percentage of agriculture within dry core range (50% AKDE range) of elephants relates to their daily distance traveled. We used autocorrelated kernel density estimator (AKDE) based on a continuous-time movement modeling (ctmm) framework to estimate dry season (26 ranges from 22 different in iduals), wet season (12 ranges from 10 different in iduals), and annual range sizes (8 in iduals), and reported the 95%, 50% AKDE, and 95% Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP) range sizes. We assessed how landscape characteristics influenced range size based on a broad array of 48 landscape metrics characterizing aspects of vegetation, water, and human features and their juxtaposition in the study areas. To identify the most relevant landscape metrics and simplify our candidate set of informative metrics, we relied on exploratory factor analysis and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. Based on this analysis we adopted a final set of metrics into our regression analysis. In a multiple regression framework, we developed candidate models to explain the variation in AKDE dry season range sizes based on the previously identified, salient metrics of landscape composition. Elephant dry season ranges were highly variable averaging 792.0 km 2 and 184.2 km 2 for the 95% and 50% AKDE home ranges, respectively. We found both the shape and spatial configuration of agriculture and natural vegetation patches within an in idual elephant’s range play a significant role in determining the size of its range. We also found that elephants are moving more (larger energy expenditure) in ranges with higher percentages of agricultural area. Our results provide baseline information on elephant spatial requirements and the factors affecting them in Myanmar. This information is important for advancing future land use planning that takes into account space-use requirements for elephants. Failing to do so may further endanger already declining elephant populations in Myanmar and across the species’ range.
No related grants have been discovered for Aung Chan.