Abstract
In this paper, we show how many fixes are enough to define the territory of two long-lived resident raptors marked by GPS transmitters. To this end, we analyzed high-resolution GPS data from 50 territorial Bonelli’s eagles (Aquila fasciata) and 9 territorial Golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) equipped with GPS/GSM dataloggers. Our results show that between 2200 and 2800 fixes are enough to define the territory. This is interesting for movement ecology works where long-term GPS data series are not available.
Zusammenfassung
Fünfzehn Tage reichen aus, um die Reviergröße einiger langlebiger, ortstreuer Adler abzuschätzen. In diesem Beitrag zeigen wir, wie viele Fixpunkte ausreichen, um die Reviergrößen zweier mit GPS-Sendern markierter langlebiger Greifvogelarten zu definieren. Hierfür analysierten wir hochauflösende GPS-Daten von 50 reviertreuen Habichtsadlern (Aquila fasciata) und 9 Steinadlern (Aquila chrysaetos), die mit GPS/GSM-Datenloggern ausgestattet waren. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass zwischen 2200 und 2800 Fixpunkte ausreichen, um das Revier zu definieren. Dies ist für bewegungsökologische Arbeiten von Interesse, für die keine langfristigen GPS-Datenreihen verfügbar sind.
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Data availability statement
All data used in this study are publicly available upon request to data managers in the online data repository Movebank (www.movebank.org). The projects are: “Bonelli’s eagle University of Alicante Spain” (project ID = 58,923,588), “Bonelli’s eagle Alicante Spain” (ID = 430,140,799), “Bonelli’s eagle University of Valencia Spain” (ID = 193,515,984), “Bonelli’s eagle and Golden eagle GVA Spain” (ID = 1,140,247,354), and “Movement ecology of large raptors in Spain” (ID = 640,908,212).
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank J. Martínez, F. García, J. Giménez, V. García, J. De la Puente, A. Bermejo, M. Montesinos, J.M. Lozano, M. Aguilar, M.A Monsalve, F. Cervera, J. Crespo, M. Vilalta, M. Surroca, T. De Chiclana, S. Ferreras, C. García, E. Mondragón, T. Camps, M. Marco, V. Agustí, P. Ruiz, T. López, N. Sendra, J. Estela, M. Piera and N. Largo for their help in fieldwork and eagles’ trapping. Special thanks to J. Jiménez of the regional government (Generalitat Valenciana’s Wildlife Service) for his help with this project. They would also thank Prof. Dr. B.U. Meyburg and Prof. M. Ferrer who made valuable comments that improved the original manuscript. This paper takes part of S. Morollón doctoral thesis at the University of Alicante.
Funding
This work was supported by Red Eléctrica de España, ACCIONA Eólica de Levante, Lafarge Holcim and the Wildlife Service of the Valencian Community regional government (Conselleria d'Agricultura, Desenvolupament Rural, Emergència Climàtica i Transició Ecològica, Generalitat Valenciana, Spain).
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S.M., V.U. and P.L.L conceived the ideas, designed methodology and collected the data. S.M. and P.L.L. analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript. V.U. and P.L.L. contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.
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Morollón, S., Urios, V. & López-López, P. Fifteen days are enough to estimate home-range size in some long-lived resident eagles. J Ornithol 163, 849–854 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-022-01982-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-022-01982-5