Lee DH, Jung N, Jang YH, Lee K, Lim J, Jang GS, Lee JW, Chon TS. Spatial Movement Patterns and Local Co-Occurrence of Nutria Individuals in Association with Habitats Using Geo-Self-Organizing Map (Geo-SOM).
BIOLOGY 2021;
10:biology10070598. [PMID:
34203361 PMCID:
PMC8301109 DOI:
10.3390/biology10070598]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2021] [Revised: 06/18/2021] [Accepted: 06/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Nutrias (Myocastor coypus) were imported to South Korea for farming in 1985; individuals escaped captivity and established wild populations in natural ecosystems in the late 1990s. Numerous studies have focused on their monitoring and management; however, information on the continuous movement of individuals is not available. In this study, telemetry data from field conditions were used to identify the nearest-neighbor distances of individuals in association with environmental factors, including plant type, land cover, and biological parameters. The minimum nearest-neighbor distances for the different sexes were, overall, according to the minimum distances for the same sex. Local co-occurrences of individuals, either of the same or different sex, were seasonal. Tall grasslands, followed by herbaceous vegetation, were associated with the co-occurrence of different sexes. Conversely, floating-leaved hydrophytes, followed by xeric herbaceous vegetation, were correlated with the co-occurrence of the same sex. Local female-male co-occurrences were negatively associated with male-male co-occurrences but not with female-female co-occurrences, suggesting male dominance in group formations. Movement and co-occurrence information extracted using Geo-self-organizing maps furthers our understanding of population dispersal and helps formulate management strategies for nutria populations.
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