Exploring the interplay between small and large scales movements in a neotropical small mammal

TL;DR

This study analyzes the movement patterns of Didelphis aurita at multiple scales, revealing a transition from Le9vy flight behavior at small scales to Brownian motion at larger scales, influenced by data aggregation effects.

Contribution

It demonstrates how movement behaviors transition from Le9vy flights to Brownian motion due to scale, without requiring ecological mechanisms, highlighting the importance of scale in movement analysis.

Findings

Small-scale movements follow truncated Le9vy flights.

Large-scale movements are compatible with Brownian motion.

Aggregation effects cause a rapid transition between movement behaviors.

Abstract

We record and analyze the movement patterns of the marsupial {\it Didelphis aurita} at different temporal scales. Animals trajectories are collected at a daily scale by using spool-and-line techniques, and with the help of radio-tracking devices animals traveled distances are estimated at intervals of weeks. Small-scale movements are well described by truncated L\'evy flight, while large-scale movements produce a distribution of distances which is compatible with a Brownian motion. A model of the movement behavior of these animals, based on a truncated L\'evy flight calibrated on the small scale data, converges towards a Brownian behavior after a short time interval of the order of one week. These results show that whether L\'evy flight or Brownian motion behaviors apply, will depend on the scale of aggregation of the animals paths. In this specific case, as the effect of the rude truncation present in the daily data generates a fast convergence towards Brownian behaviors, L\'evy flights become of scarce interest for describing the local dispersion properties of these animals, which result well approximated by a normal diffusion process and not a fast, anomalous one. Interestingly, we are able to describe two movement phases as the consequence of a statistical effect generated by aggregation, without the necessity of introducing ecological constraints or mechanisms operating at different spatio-temporal scales. This result is of general interest, as it can be a key element for describing movement phenomenology at distinct spatio-temporal scales across different taxa and in a variety of systems.