Seasonal patterns of spatial fidelity and temporal consistency in the distribution and movements of a migratory ungulate

Joly, Kyle; Gurarie, Eliezer; Hansen, D.; Cameron, Matthev

ow animals use their range can have physiological, ecological, and demographic repercussions, as well as impact management decisions, species conservation, and human society. Fidelity, the predictable return to certain places, can improve fitness if it is associated with high-quality habitat or helps enable individuals to locate heterogenous patches of higher-quality habitat within a lower-quality habtat matrix. Our goal was to qua patterns of fidelity at differespatial scales to better understicity of habitat use of a vital subsistence species that undere analyzed a decade (2010–2019) of GPS data from 240 adult, femribou (Rangifer tarandus) from northwest Alaska, U.S.A. We assete-specific locations within seasonal ranges and to regions witt null datasets. We assessed both area and consistency of use dussessed the temporal consistency of migration and calving eventhat caribou fidelity was greatest during the calving and insectwhere the herd tended to maximally aggregate in the smallest arwever, even in seasons with lower fidelity, we found that caribou still showed fidelity to certain regions within the herd's ra caribou gave birth within 7 days of the day they gave birth the previous year. This revealed fairly high temporal consistency,ity than spring migration. Our results support the hypothesis that higher fidelity to seasonal ranges is related to greater env Almost the entire herd would seek out these areas with predictable resources, and then, individuals would vary their use, likesources, population-level fidelity was lower but individual fidelity was higher. The herd would be more spread out during the ster individual fidelity, perhaps resulting from memory of a successful outcome the previous year. Our results also suggest thage fidelity may be driven by seasonal differences in group size, degree of sociality, and/or density-dependent factors. ClimatHintifynt tand the relative plasgoes long-distance migrations. Wale Western Arctic Herd (WAH) cassed fidelity at 2 spatial scales: to sihin the herd's entire range by using 2 differenring 6 different seasons of the year. We also as. At the scale of the overall range, we found t relief (early summer) seasons, ea, and lowest in winter when the seasonal range is largest. Honge. Within those seasonal ranges, however, there was little individual site-specific fidelity from year to year, with the exception of summer periods. Temporally, we found that over 90% of especially given the spatial and temporal variability of spring migration. Fall migration exhibited greater temporal variabilironmental and resource predictability. Interestingly, this fidelity was stronger at larger scales and at the population level.ely in response to annually varying conditions. During seasons with lower presumed spatial and/or temporal predictability of reasons of low-resource predictability, leading to lower fidelity at the scale of their entire range, but individuals could be closer to locations they used the previous year, leading to great fidelity in 1 season is related to fidelity in the subsequent season. We hypothesize that some differences in patterns of rane change may affect resource predictability and, thus, the spatial fidelity and temporal consistency of use of animals to cert

Seasonal patterns of spatial fidelity and temporal consistency in the distribution and movements of a migratory ungulate

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