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The Non-Aggressive Nor Territorial Behaviour of Pyrenean Desman As Activity and space patterns of Pyrenean desman (Galemys pyrenaicus) suggest non-aggressive and non-territorial behaviour Article Accepted Version Melero, Y., Aymerich, P., Santulli, G. and Gosàlbez, J. (2014) Activity and space patterns of Pyrenean desman (Galemys pyrenaicus) suggest non-aggressive and non-territorial behaviour. European Journal of Wildlife Research, 60 (5). pp. 707-715. ISSN 1612 4642 doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344- 014-0838-8 Available at http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/83111/ It is advisable to refer to the publisher’s version if you intend to cite from the work. See Guidance on citing . To link to this article DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10344-014-0838-8 Publisher: Springer All outputs in CentAUR are protected by Intellectual Property Rights law, including copyright law. Copyright and IPR is retained by the creators or other copyright holders. Terms and conditions for use of this material are defined in the End User Agreement . www.reading.ac.uk/centaur CentAUR Central Archive at the University of Reading Reading’s research outputs online 1 Activity and space patterns of Pyrenean desman (Galemys pyrenaicus) suggest non- 2 aggressive and non-territorial behaviour 3 Y. Melero1,2, P. Aymerich1, G. Santulli1, and J. Gosàlbez1 4 1Department of Animal Biology (Vertebrates), University of Barcelona, Spain 5 2School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, AB24 2TZ Aberdeen, UK 6 7 Correspondence author: Yolanda Melero 8 E-mail address: [email protected]; telephone: +44(0)1224272789 9 10 Keywords Activity pattern; Galemys pyrenaicus; movement pattern; Pyrenean desman; 11 social organization 12 13 Abstract 14 The Pyrenean desman is considered as a flag species of biodiversity and evolution. However, 15 its scientific knowledge is still under development and currently on debate, in special in 16 relation to the behavioural ecology and social organization. Based on the previous hypothesis 17 of individual desmans being solitary and territorial, activity and space patterns were 18 described as arranged to avoid conspecifics. However, recent new insights into the species 19 social behaviour revealed non-interspecific avoidance. With this study we provide novel 20 insights into their activity and space patterns and their relation to the social behaviour. A 21 total of 30 individuals were trapped of which 18 provided informative radiotracking data to 22 study (1) individuals activity behaviour, (2) proportion of home range utilised and movement 23 distances, and (3) movement directionality. Activity and space use patterns were affected by 24 daylight and seasonality but not by sex, age or number of other conspecifics sharing the home 25 range. In contrast to the previous observations, individuals did not show a pattern of 26 directionally in their movements. Noticeably, we observed encounters between individuals 1 27 without evidence of aggressive behaviour between them. Our results suggest that desmans do 28 not opposite their activity neither their spatial behaviour in order to avoid encounters with 29 conspecifics as previously suggested. These novel findings provide more evidences of a 30 social structure and organization with social interactions and non-aggressive behaviour. This 31 is of relevance for management actions and conservation purposes of this endemic mammal. 32 33 34 Authors declare no conflict of interest 2 35 Introduction 36 The Pyrenean desman (Galemys pyrenaicus; also known as Iberian desman) is a riparian 37 species considered as a flag species of biodiversity and evolution because of its relic and 38 narrow endemic character. Together with the Russian desman (Desmana moschata) represent 39 the last two extant species of the Desmanini lineage of Soricomorpha (Nowak 1999) a 40 mammalian taxa of extremely high biodiversity value. However, the species has been quite 41 unknown to the general public due to its nocturnal elusive behaviour; and to the scientific 42 community because the difficulty of its study (due to e.g. the few approved capture 43 authorisations or the difficulty of scat identification using non-genetic methodologies since 44 desman and shrew scats can easily be misidentified) 45 The first published information on its social and ecological behaviour was thanks to 46 the novel studies carried by (Stone 1987b; Stone 1987a; Stone 1985; Stone and Gorman 47 1985), Stone (1987b; 1987a; 1985) in wild watercourses, and Richard and Michaud (1975) 48 and Richard (1986; 1985) in captivity. Since then a few seminal studies have talked about its 49 distribution, morphology and general biology (Aymerich and Gosàlbez 2013; Aymerich and 50 Gosàlbez 2002; Bertrand 1993; Palomo et al. 2007; Queiroz and Almada 1993; Williams- 51 Tripp et al. 2012) and most of them are grey literature and/or have low international 52 repercussion. Nonetheless, in the recent years the interest on the species has increased 53 notably by both the general public and the scientific community. Indeed, the Pyrenean 54 desman recently became strictly protected under the Bern Convention (Appendix II) and the 55 EU Habitats and Species Directive (Annexes II and IV). Notwithstanding, the scientific 56 knowledge on its behaviour and ecology is still poorly developed. 57 One of the most unknown aspects of the species biology is its behavioural ecology 58 and the reliability of little available information is currently on debate. The species was first 59 observed as largely territorial and solitary or organised in couples in the wild (Stone 1987a; 3 60 Stone and Gorman 1985) and solitary in captivity (Richard and Viallard 1969). This 61 hypothesis was supported by observations that described the individuals as highly aggressive 62 with conspecifics independently of the sex even between couples, except for temporal mating 63 and transient individuals (Stone 1987a). Since these first studies, there has been no more 64 research on its social organization or behaviour, and these observations have been the 65 foundation for the knowledge on the species behavioural ecology. Consequently, many 66 studies were based on the aegis of desmans being aggressive with resident male and female 67 couples occupying an exclusive range in which the male’s range encloses that of the female, 68 and individuals hold exclusive shelters (Richard and Valette Viallard 1969; Stone 1987b; 69 Stone 1987a; Stone 1985). Controversially, we recently observed a different social behaviour 70 with non-territoriality nor conspecific avoidance (Melero et al. 2012). More in detail, we 71 found that socio-spatial organization was community based with non-exclusive or permanent 72 territories and shared home ranges and resting sites (shelters used for more than 1h) between 73 two or more resident non-couple individuals of different and/or same sex. Our new findings 74 thus, recalled for a re-evaluation of the behavioural ecology of the species and the subsequent 75 related research and management actions. 76 Under the observations of Stone (1985; 1987a;b) individual behaviour was observed 77 to be arranged to avoid conspecifics. It was described as a bimodal activity rhythm with one 78 diurnal and one nocturnal activity bout during which the whole riparian territory was seen to 79 be patrolled on a 48h basis if solitary and 24h basis in the case of mating couples sharing the 80 territory. In this patrolling, males were more frequently found in the border areas of the river 81 sections included in their territories to protect the territory and mating couples avoiding 82 encounters between them. In addition, individuals had fixed directional up or downstream 83 movements that were organised between individuals to avoid encounters, including couples 84 except for mating encounters. However, under the novel recent observations of the species 4 85 not being territorial or aggressive (Melero et al. 2012), individual activity and space use 86 might not follow the previously postulated objective of avoidance. 87 In this study, we investigated the activity and space use patterns of a local population 88 of Pyrenean desman. We hypothesised that individual activity and space use patterns were 89 not organised to avoid conspecific encounters. To test our hypothesis we studied (1) 90 individuals activity behaviour (active versus inactive), (2) proportion of home range utilised 91 and movement distances during the activity bouts, and (3) directionality of individual 92 desmans. We also state several observed spatiotemporal encounters between individuals. Our 93 overall aim was to increase the scarce research and knowledge on the behaviour of the 94 species. We believe that clarifying the scientific knowledge on the species behaviour is 95 crucial for the understanding of the species biology and its conservation. This will contribute 96 to the awareness of the species and, ultimately, to improve design of on-going and future 97 research, management and conservation actions. 98 99 Material and methods 100 101 The study area and the methodology for trapping and radiotracking was previously described 102 in the in Melero et al. (2012) because the data used in this study was a subset of the data used 103 in the preceding publication consisting of individuals captured between 2002 and 2004 in the 104 river Tor. 105 106 Study area 107 108 The study was conducted in the river Tor, located in the Eastern Pyrenees (UTM 31TCH61). 109 We selected 2 km of the river Tor which presented 4 m of mean width, 0.1-0.4 m of mean 110 depth, and 6.5% of mean slope, rocky river-bed and rocky shorelines covered by dense 5 111 vegetation. The river Tor is a well preserved river without anthropogenic pressures. Winter 112 snowfalls and their subsequent spring thaws maintain a constant high river flow with a peak 113 in April-May but without significant seasonal differences. Mean altitude of the area ranges 114 between 1200 and 1400 m and precipitation falls regularly along the year within a range of 115 800-1000 mm being the highest between May and September.
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