Native Burmese pythons exhibit site fidelity and preference for aquatic habitats in an agricultural mosaic

Abstract

Animal movement and resource use are tightly linked. Investigating these links to understand how animals use space and select habitats is especially relevant in areas affected by habitat fragmentation and agricultural conversion. We set out to explore the space use and habitat selection of Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) in a heterogenous, agricultural landscape within the Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve, northeast Thailand. We used VHF telemetry to record the daily locations of seven Burmese pythons and created dynamic Brownian Bridge Movement Models to produce occurrence distributions and model movement extent and temporal patterns. To explore relationships between movement and habitat selection we used integrated step selection functions at both the individual and population level. Burmese pythons had a mean 99% occurrence distribution contour of 98.97 ha (range 9.05–285.56 ha). Furthermore, our results indicated that Burmese pythons had low mean individual motion variance, indicating infrequent moves and long periods at a single location. In general, Burmese pythons restricted movement and selected aquatic habitats but did not avoid potentially dangerous land use types like human settlements. Although our sample is small, we suggest that Burmese pythons are capitalizing on human disturbed landscapes.