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Individual Mechanical Energy Expenditure Regimens Vary Seasonally with Weather, Sex, Age and Body Condition in a Generalist Carnivore Population : Support for Inter-Individual Tactical Diversity Bright Ross, Julius G.; Markham, Andrew; Noonan, Michael J.; Buesching, Christina D.; Connolly, Erin; Pallett, Denise W.; Malhi, Yadvinder; Macdonald, David W.; Newman, Chris

Abstract

Diverse individual energy-budgeting tactics within wild populations provide resilience to natural fluctuations in food availability and expenditure costs. Although substantial heterogeneity in activity-related energy expenditure has been documented, few studies differentiate between responses to the environment and inter-individual differences stemming from life history, allometry, or somatic stores. Using tri-axial accelerometry, complemented by diet analysis, we investigated inter-individual within-season variation in overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA; activity intensity measure) and “Activity” (above an ODBA threshold) in a high-density population of European badgers (Meles meles). Weather (including wind speed) affected ODBA and activity according to predictors of earthworm (food) availability and cooling potential. In spring, maximal ODBA expenditure at intermediate rainfall and temperature values suggested that badgers traded foraging success against thermoregulatory losses, where lower-condition badgers maintained higher spring ODBA irrespective of temperature while badgers in better body condition reduced ODBA at colder temperatures. Conversely, in summer, lower-condition badgers modulated ODBA according to temperature, likely in response to super-abundant food supply. Between 35% (spring, summer) and 57% (autumn) of residual total daily ODBA variance related to inter-individual differences unexplained by seasonal predictors, suggesting within-season tactical activity typologies. We propose that this heterogeneity among individual energy-expenditure profiles may contribute to population resilience under rapid environmental change.

Item Metadata

Title
Individual Mechanical Energy Expenditure Regimens Vary Seasonally with Weather, Sex, Age and Body Condition in a Generalist Carnivore Population : Support for Inter-Individual Tactical Diversity
Creator
Bright Ross, Julius G.; Markham, Andrew; Noonan, Michael J.; Buesching, Christina D.; Connolly, Erin; Pallett, Denise W.; Malhi, Yadvinder; Macdonald, David W.; Newman, Chris
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Date Issued
2025-05-27
Description
Diverse individual energy-budgeting tactics within wild populations provide resilience to natural fluctuations in food availability and expenditure costs. Although substantial heterogeneity in activity-related energy expenditure has been documented, few studies differentiate between responses to the environment and inter-individual differences stemming from life history, allometry, or somatic stores. Using tri-axial accelerometry, complemented by diet analysis, we investigated inter-individual within-season variation in overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA; activity intensity measure) and “Activity” (above an ODBA threshold) in a high-density population of European badgers (Meles meles). Weather (including wind speed) affected ODBA and activity according to predictors of earthworm (food) availability and cooling potential. In spring, maximal ODBA expenditure at intermediate rainfall and temperature values suggested that badgers traded foraging success against thermoregulatory losses, where lower-condition badgers maintained higher spring ODBA irrespective of temperature while badgers in better body condition reduced ODBA at colder temperatures. Conversely, in summer, lower-condition badgers modulated ODBA according to temperature, likely in response to super-abundant food supply. Between 35% (spring, summer) and 57% (autumn) of residual total daily ODBA variance related to inter-individual differences unexplained by seasonal predictors, suggesting within-season tactical activity typologies. We propose that this heterogeneity among individual energy-expenditure profiles may contribute to population resilience under rapid environmental change.
Subject
activity profiles; age differences; behavioral plasticity; behavioral thermoregulation; dynamic heterogeneity; tri-axial accelerometry
Genre
Article
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2025-06-12
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
CC BY 4.0
DOI
10.14288/1.0449114
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/91349
Affiliation
Science, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan); Non UBC; Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Statistics, Department of (Okanagan)
Citation
Animals 15 (11): 1560 (2025)
Publisher DOI
10.3390/ani15111560
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty; Researcher
Rights URI
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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CC BY 4.0