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Home range and daily traveled distances of highland colombian woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagothricha lugens): Comparing spatial data from GPS collars and direct follows

Abstract:

Space requirements are essential to assess population ecology especially for endangered species. The goal of this study was to estimate home range size and daily traveled distances (DTD) of two groups of woolly monkeys using two different sampling methods: direct observations of focal animals using handheld GPS devices and GPS collars located on four individuals. Our research questions were: (1) Are there differences in the estimates of home range size and DTD between methods? (2) In case of differences, are topography and trail locations associated with sampling bias? (3) What is the appropriate sampling interval to obtain statistically independent data? Highland woolly monkey home ranges and their DTD were underestimated by direct observations of focal animals using handheld GPS devices. Direct observations were affected by the rugged topography of the study site and were infrequent away from the trail system. In contrast, the use of GPS collars, it was costly but useful to obtain reliable data on space use by highland woolly monkeys. By using GPS collar was possible to track both study groups continuously with high quality and precision and covering broad geographic areas. Finally, our results demonstrated that the independence of observations for statistical purposes was reached after a 5-h sampling.