Thank you for visiting nature. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer.
In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. 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.
(mh=2ED3Cc8mkoprkNUM)14.jpg "Prostitutes Goodyear")
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.
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. Animal movement links to resource use such as habitat selection as movement is highly impacted by habitat availability 5. As humans continue to degrade suitable habitats, understanding relationships between animal movement and habitat selection assists in developing conservation-based actions.
