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Heathcote, RJP, Whiteside, MA, Beardsworth, CE, Van Horik, JO, Laker, PR, Toledo, S, Orchan, Y, Nathan, R and Madden, JR (2023) Spatial memory predicts home range size and predation risk in pheasants. Nature Ecology and Evolution. ISSN 2397-334X
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Heathcote_Spatial cognition and home ranges_ACCEPTED.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (409kB) | Preview |
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Abstract
Most animals confine their activities to a discrete home range, long assumed to reflect the fitness benefits of obtaining spatial knowledge about the landscape. However, few empirical studies have linked spatial memory to home range development or determined how selection operates on spatial memory via the latter’s role in mediating space use. We assayed the cognitive ability of juvenile pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) reared under identical conditions before releasing them into the wild. Then, we used high-throughput tracking to record their movements as they developed their home ranges, and determined the location, timing and cause of mortality events. Individuals with greater spatial reference memory developed larger home ranges. Mortality risk from predators was highest at the periphery of an individual’s home range in areas where they had less experience and opportunity to obtain spatial information. Predation risk was lower in individuals with greater spatial memory and larger core home ranges, suggesting selection may operate on spatial memory by increasing the ability to learn about predation risk across the landscape. Our results reveal that spatial memory, determined from abstract cognitive assays, shapes home range development and variation, and suggests predation risk selects for spatial memory via experience-dependent spatial variation in mortality.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Additional Information: | This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01950-5 |
| Subjects: | Q Science > QL Zoology |
| Divisions: | Biological & Environmental Sciences (from Sep 19) |
| Publisher: | Nature Publishing Group |
| SWORD Depositor: | A Symplectic |
| Date Deposited: | 15 Feb 2023 14:09 |
| Last Modified: | 23 Jul 2023 00:50 |
| DOI or ID number: | 10.1038/s41559-022-01950-5 |
| URI: | https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/18893 |
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