10.5061/DRYAD.QBZKH18KC
Beausoleil, Marc-Olivier
0000-0003-3717-3223
McGill University
Camacho, Carlos
0000-0002-9704-5816
Lund University
Rabadán-González, Julio
Observation.org
Lalla, Kristen
McGill University
Richard, Roxanne
McGill University
Carrion-Avilés, Paola
McGill University
P. Hendry, Andrew
McGill University
D. H. Barrett, Rowan
McGill University
Where did the finch go? Insights from radio telemetry of the medium ground
finch (Geospiza fortis)
Dryad
dataset
2022
behaviour
Communal roosting
Geospiza fortis
habitat selection
home range
spatial ecology
FOS: Biological sciences
Nature and Landscape Conservation
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Nature et Technologies
https://ror.org/00b9f9778
2022-04-04T00:00:00Z
2022-04-04T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8768
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6412434
14397101 bytes
6
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Movement patterns and habitat selection of animals have important
implications for ecology and evolution. Darwin's finches are a
classic model system for ecological and evolutionary studies, yet their
spatial ecology remains poorly studied. We tagged and radio-tracked five
(three females, two males) medium ground finches (Geospiza fortis) to
examine the feasibility of telemetry for understanding their movement and
habitat use. Based on 143 locations collected during a three-week period,
we analysed, for the first time, home-range size and habitat selection
patterns of finches at El Garrapatero, an arid coastal ecosystem on Santa
Cruz Island (Galápagos). The average 95% home range and 50% core area
for G. fortis in the breeding season were 20.54 ha ± 4.04 ha SE and 4.03
ha ± 1.11 ha SE, respectively. For most of the finches, their home range
covered a diverse set of habitats. Three finches positively selected the
dry-forest habitat, while the other habitats seemed to be either
negatively selected or simply neglected by the finches. In addition, we
noted a communal roosting behaviour in an area close to the ocean, where
the vegetation is greener and denser than the more inland dry-forest
vegetation. We show that telemetry on Darwin’s finches provides valuable
data to understand the movement ecology of the species. Based on our
results, we propose a series of questions about the ecology and evolution
of Darwin’s finches that can be addressed using telemetry.
Please, refer to the article and the README.
# Data from: Where did the finch go? Insights from radio telemetry of the
medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis) VERSION v.00001.2022-03-31 **Author
Information** Corresponding Investigator Name: Marc-Olivier Beausoleil
Institution: McGill University Email:
marc-olivier.beausoleil@mail.mcgill.ca Co-investigator 1 Name: Carlos
Camacho Institution 1: Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología—CSIC Institution 2:
Lund University Co-investigator 2 Name: Julio Rabadán-González
Institution: Observation.org Co-investigator 3 Name: Kristen Lalla
Institution: McGill University Co-investigator 4 Name: Roxanne Richard
Institution: McGill University Co-investigator 5 Name: Paola
Carrion-Avilés Institution: McGill University Co-investigator 6 Name:
Andrew P. Hendry Institution: McGill University Co-investigator 7 Name:
Rowan D. H. Barrett Institution: McGill University **Date of data
collection:** 2019 **Geographic location of data collection:** El
Garrapatero, Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos, Ecuador (0°41'22.9"
S, 90°13'19.7" W) **Funding sources that supported the
collection of the data:** Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery and Canada Research Chair grant
(A.P.H.) NSERC Discovery Grant and Canada Research Chair grant (R.D.H.B.)
NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship, Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and
Sustainability (BESS) NSERC CREATE (M.-O.B) Fonds de recherche du Québec,
Nature et technologies Scholarship (M.-O.B) **Keywords** behaviour,
communal roosting, Geospiza fortis, habitat selection, home range, spatial
ecology **Recommended citation for this dataset:** Beausoleil, M.-O. et
al. (2022), Where did the finch go? Insights from radio telemetry of the
medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis), Dryad, Dataset,
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qbzkh18kc ## DATA & FILE OVERVIEW
1\. Description of dataset and scripts The dataset and script were
developed to 1. Explore Darwin’s finch movement and space use ; 2.
Ascertain data quantity and quality for a 3-week data collection period;
3. Identify limitations of radio-telemetry methods in a volcanic terrain.
To fulfil these aims, we deployed VHF radio-telemetry tags on a focal
sample of five medium ground finches (Geospiza fortis) on Santa Cruz in
the Galápagos, Ecuador. We then estimated the home range and core area of
these birds in the arid coastal zone and characterized their habitat
selection patterns and movement behaviour. The scripts and data and for
the R language (R Core Team 2022; R version, 4.0.4 (Lost Library Book)).
2\. File List: File 1 Name:
Beausoleil\_2022\_G.fortis.telemetry.data.RData Description: Data to
generate the main figures. File 2 Name: Beausoleil\_2022\_Main.figures.R
Description: The main script generates the main figures. Dependencies:
requires "Beausoleil\_2022\_initialize.R" and
"Beausoleil\_2022\_add\_legend\_to\_empty\_facet.R". File 3
Name: Beausoleil\_2022\_initialize.R Description: Load packages and custom
functions for the analyses Dependencies: Installation of the packages File
4 Name: Beausoleil\_2022\_add\_legend\_to\_empty\_facet.R Description:
Function to plot legend in ggplot. ## METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR:
Beausoleil\_2022\_G.fortis.telemetry.data.RData 1\. Number of variables:
See below. 2\. Number of cases/rows: See below. 3\. Variable List: -
\`elgar.hab\` (6 rows): - Polygon of habitat (sf object), - geometry (a
polygon or multipolygon) for the habitats, "Beach", "Inland
water", "Manzanillo Forest", "Opuntia Forest",
"Pacific Sea", and "Road Paved". - \`data.birds\` (143
rows): - Locations of all birds (sf object with a data frame) - pid (point
ID) - band (band number of each bird) - PointType (the bird's
activity: "Diurnal activity", "Nest", and
"Roosting") - date (of the observed point), and - geometry
(containing the coordinates of the points). - \`razimuth.data\` (219
rows): - Razimuth data.frame that was input in the model (raw data) -
indiv (number of each bird) - obs\_id (identification number for the point
that was recorded) - utm\_x (x coordinate) - utm\_y (y coordinate) -
azimuth (in angle) - date (of the observed point) - PointType (the
bird's activity: "Diurnal activity", "Nest", and
"Roosting"), - prior\_r (prior for the model) - \`model.matrix\`
(116 rows): Locations of the finches in data frame format estimated with
the azimuthal telemetry model - \`model.output.list\` (length 5): List of
the 5 MCMC models output (from razimuth package), one for each bird. 4\.
Missing data codes: None 5\. Abbreviations used: None 6\. Other relevant
information: Please refer to the article. ## REFERENCES R Core Team. 2022.
R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for
Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria.