Social interactions and habitat structure in understanding the dynamic space use of invasive wild pigs

Abstract

Untangling the abiotic and biotic feedback mechanisms driving animal movements and ranges is a core question in ecology, yet progress is hampered by inadequate modelling procedures. Here we show how a recently developed process-based modelling approach, combining step-selection functions and individual-based models, enables a flexible method to infer movement drivers and multi-scale emergent space use patterns. As a case study, we examine the movement behaviours of a highly invasive social generalist (wild pigs, Sus scrofa) in relation to conspecific space use and multiple land cover types in a complex agricultural landscape, showing that social interactions are predominantly more important to this species than selection for land cover. Thus, animal movement studies should not neglect the effects of sociality when inferring resource driven movements and, crucially, use multi-scale techniques that incorporate movement processes to untangle drivers of animal space use.