Movement ecology and conservation of capuchins in pine plantation landscapes
Overview
This repository contains R scripts used to analyze movement and space-use data of black capuchin monkeys (Sapajus nigritus) inhabiting pine plantations and Iguazú National Park in northeastern Argentina. Data were collected using a combination of methods, including GPS collars, VHF telemetry, and direct full-day group follows.
To understand how the conversion of native forests into plantations affects spatial ecology, we conducted three main analyses:
Analyses
Daily Trajectories (CODE)
How much do capuchins move daily in plantations?
- We examined the effects of plantations and other environmental covariates on daily travel distances using Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs).
- Daily travel distance is directly linked to the challenges of meeting ecological needs in altered landscapes. Scarcity of resource (food and sleeping sites) in plantations stands force capuchins to travel longer daily distances.
Movement Segmentation (CODE)
How do capuchins move within plantations?
- To characterize movement patterns, we used Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) to segment trajectories into two behavioral states:
- Resident: Associated with resting, social interactions, feeding, and stationary foraging.
- Transit: Associated with traveling between resource patches.
- This analysis provides insights into how movement states are distributed spatially and how capuchins interact with landscape features.
How and where do capuchins distribute their activities in plantations?
- We estimated home ranges and core areas using Autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimators (AKDEs).
- Using GLMMs, we tested how home range size and core areas were influenced by plantations and other key covariates.
- These findings provide critical insights for primate conservation in forestry landscapes, supporting sustainable management practices and predicting population outcomes.
Some Animations (CODE)
- We used animated maps to visualize how behavioral states (Resident and Transit) link to habitat types within plantations landscapes.
- The animations also show trajectories and behavioral states within home ranges and core areas, providing spatial context to behavioral segmentation.