1,721,023 research outputs found
Biologging and remote-sensing of behavior
No full textThe fast-occurring technological advancement has allowed the growth of biologging and remote sensing applications in the
field of animal behavior. In particular, tracking loggers allow the collection of spatial data to investigate individual space use,
proximity loggers to monitor interactions, accelerometers to detect activity patterns, camera traps to detect species occurrence,
locomotion, heartbeat or temperature sensors to measure the internal or external state of animals. Here we describe a wide
array of methods for tracking animals, focusing on the classification of different typologies of loggers, and discussing the best
practice for their application to animal behavior studies
Brown bear multi-scale response to human presence and mobility in the Italian Alps
Full text linkIn an increasingly human-dominated world, wildlife is constrained by human presence and activity, inducing behavioural adjustments as a consequence. Large mammals are especially sensitive to such changes, questioning the potential of their behavioural flexibility to cope with human disturbance. Using brown bears in the Italian Alps as a study case, we investigated their response to changes in human presence over different temporal scales. Combining human mobility data with bear tracking and activity data spanning from 2006 to 2019, we analysed bears’ behaviour and movement as a function of human activities. We observed that over the years bear activity and daily movement length have increased, while diurnality and range size have decreased. While tourism has grown in parallel, this was not identified as the main driver of such responses. Rather, it was mostly due to the increase in bear population, whose space is nonetheless limited by human infrastructure. At a weekly scale, we observed no difference in daily movement lengths between weekdays and weekends. This might perhaps be because of the continuous human disturbance in the area overall. Finally, at the daily scale, we found that individuals roamed in places more intensively exploited by humans at night compared to daytime, especially when ranging in heavily disturbed areas. Our results highlight how humans are indirectly, by hampering connectivity, and directly, through disturbance, shaping brown bear behaviour and movement. In view of a growing volume of outdoor human activity, we analyze the implications of such responses and present challenges for human-wildlife coexistence
Ecological and behavioral drivers of supplemental feeding use by roe deer Capreolus capreolus in a peri-urban context
Full text linkWinter supplemental feeding of ungulates potentially alters their use of resources and
ecological interactions, yet relatively little is known about the patterns of feeding sites use by target
populations. We used camera traps to continuously monitor winter and spring feeding site use in a
roe deer population living in a peri-urban area in Northern Italy. We combined circular statistics with
generalized additive and linear mixed models to analyze the diel and seasonal pattern of roe deer
visits to feeding sites, and the behavioral drivers influencing visit duration. Roe deer visits peaked at
dawn and dusk, and decreased from winter to spring when vegetation regrows and temperature
increases. Roe deer mostly visited feeding sites solitarily; when this was not the case, they stayed
longer at the site, especially when conspecifics were eating, but maintained a bimodal diel pattern
of visits. These results support an opportunistic use of feeding sites, following seasonal cycles and
the roe deer circadian clock. Yet, the attractiveness of these artificial resources has the potential to
alter intra-specific relationships, as competition for their use induces gatherings and may extend the
contact time between individuals, with potential behavioral and epidemiological consequences
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Human infrastructure can alter the ecosystem services provided by a migratory ungulate
Full text linkWild ungulates, through their movement over the landscape, provide key ecosystem functions. Environmental processes such as soil productivity, seed dispersal and carbon sequestration are significantly affected by the presence of large herbivores. However, with the loss of migratory routes due to expanding human infrastructure networks and climate change, landscapes that depend on the movement of these species may experience changes in ecosystem functionality. Nutrient translocation and deposition, which is an important service provided by large herbivores, is of particular interest in alpine agricultural landscapes. Human activities generally have a negative impact on the quality, quantity, and dynamics of soil nutrient in the landscape, particularly nitrogen. Wild ungulates, with their movement and space use, can offset some of these human impacts by restoring concentrations over the landscape. In this project, we aim to map the nitrogen (N) flow derived by large migrating ungulates in a fragmented Alpine ecosystem. To this end, we developed an Agent-Based Model to quantify animal-vectored subsidies balance, based on observed movement of 15 GPS-tracked red deer over two years, and parameterized with population parameters from local monitoring, and species-specific information from literature. Preliminary stoichiometric nutrient budget maps indicate that human infrastructure networks and land use are shaping the movement of red deer, resulting in hotspots of nitrogen intake and uptake. Barrier to movements, caused by anthropogenic land use, has the potential to alter ecosystem services provided by free-ranging animals, particularly important in an ever-changing Alpine environment
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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