e-obs Stories & Publications

@article{tekam_habitat_2026,

title = {Habitat Selection and Seed Dispersal by the Great Blue Turaco (Corythaeola cristata) in the Rainforests of Southern Cameroon},

author = {Antoine S. A. Tekam and Nicholas J. Russo and Bonaventure Sonk\'{e} and Vincent Deblauwe and Docas L. Nshom and Nicolas Barbier and Ant\'{o}nio Ferraz and Sassan Saatchi and Martin Wikelski and Elsa M. Ordway and Thomas B. Smith},

url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/btp.70153},

doi = {10.1111/btp.70153},

issn = {1744-7429},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-01-01},

urldate = {2026-02-17},

journal = {Biotropica},

volume = {58},

number = {1},

pages = {e70153},

abstract = {Tropical rainforests are biodiversity hotspots, where the seeds of 60%\textendash90% of trees are dispersed by animals, yet movement data needed to understand the behaviors and habitat selection of tropical frugivores remain scarce. We GPS-tracked four great blue turacos (Corythaeola cristata) in the Dja Faunal Reserve of southern Cameroon and predicted spatial patterns of seed dispersal within each bird's home range, which covered up to 2.33 km2. Using integrated Step Selection Analyses, we related turaco movements to LiDAR-derived measurements of 3D vegetation structure and habitat type. One individual preferred areas of tall canopy height, whereas one preferred intermediate canopy height and avoided swamps and areas of greater vertical vegetation complexity. Seed dispersal patterns for the two turacos with the largest home ranges were predicted to be more diffuse, with local maxima almost an order of magnitude smaller than those with smaller home ranges. Although the great blue turaco is a common bird species throughout central African forests, this is the first study to characterize the species' movement ecology using telemetry. The observed individual variation in movement and habitat use underscores the need to track a broader range of species in central African landscapes, which are increasingly threatened by hunting, logging, habitat loss, and climate change.},

note = {_eprint: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/btp.70153},

keywords = {accelerometer, African, Animal movement, Backpack, behavior, biodiversity, bird, Bird Solar, Flight behaviour, Flying, Forest, frugivore, home range, movement ecology, Space use, Step Selection Function, telemetry},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{tekam_habitat_2026-1,

title = {Habitat Selection and Seed Dispersal by the Great Blue Turaco (Corythaeola cristata) in the Rainforests of Southern Cameroon},

author = {Antoine S. A. Tekam and Nicholas J. Russo and Bonaventure Sonk\'{e} and Vincent Deblauwe and Docas L. Nshom and Nicolas Barbier and Ant\'{o}nio Ferraz and Sassan Saatchi and Martin Wikelski and Elsa M. Ordway and Thomas B. Smith},

url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/btp.70153},

doi = {10.1111/btp.70153},

issn = {1744-7429},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-01-01},

urldate = {2026-02-27},

journal = {Biotropica},

volume = {58},

number = {1},

pages = {e70153},

abstract = {Tropical rainforests are biodiversity hotspots, where the seeds of 60%\textendash90% of trees are dispersed by animals, yet movement data needed to understand the behaviors and habitat selection of tropical frugivores remain scarce. We GPS-tracked four great blue turacos (Corythaeola cristata) in the Dja Faunal Reserve of southern Cameroon and predicted spatial patterns of seed dispersal within each bird's home range, which covered up to 2.33 km2. Using integrated Step Selection Analyses, we related turaco movements to LiDAR-derived measurements of 3D vegetation structure and habitat type. One individual preferred areas of tall canopy height, whereas one preferred intermediate canopy height and avoided swamps and areas of greater vertical vegetation complexity. Seed dispersal patterns for the two turacos with the largest home ranges were predicted to be more diffuse, with local maxima almost an order of magnitude smaller than those with smaller home ranges. Although the great blue turaco is a common bird species throughout central African forests, this is the first study to characterize the species' movement ecology using telemetry. The observed individual variation in movement and habitat use underscores the need to track a broader range of species in central African landscapes, which are increasingly threatened by hunting, logging, habitat loss, and climate change.},

note = {_eprint: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/btp.70153},

keywords = {biodiversity, corythaeola cristata, frugivore, great blue turaco, home range, movement ecology, Step Selection Function},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{signer_animal_2019,

title = {Animal movement tools (amt): R package for managing tracking data and conducting habitat selection analyses},

author = {Johannes Signer and John Fieberg and Tal Avgar},

url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ece3.4823},

doi = {10.1002/ece3.4823},

issn = {2045-7758},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

urldate = {2026-02-27},

journal = {Ecology and Evolution},

volume = {9},

number = {2},

pages = {880\textendash890},

abstract = {Advances in tracking technology have led to an exponential increase in animal location data, greatly enhancing our ability to address interesting questions in movement ecology, but also presenting new challenges related to data management and analysis. Step-selection functions (SSFs) are commonly used to link environmental covariates to animal location data collected at fine temporal resolution. SSFs are estimated by comparing observed steps connecting successive animal locations to random steps, using a likelihood equivalent of a Cox proportional hazards model. By using common statistical distributions to model step length and turn angle distributions, and including habitat- and movement-related covariates (functions of distances between points, angular deviations), it is possible to make inference regarding habitat selection and movement processes or to control one process while investigating the other. The fitted model can also be used to estimate utilization distributions and mechanistic home ranges. Here, we present the R package amt (animal movement tools) that allows users to fit SSFs to data and to simulate space use of animals from fitted models. The amt package also provides tools for managing telemetry data. Using fisher (Pekania pennanti) data as a case study, we illustrate a four-step approach to the analysis of animal movement data, consisting of data management, exploratory data analysis, fitting of models, and simulating from fitted models.},

note = {_eprint: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.4823},

keywords = {habitat selection, home range, movement ecology, resource-selection function, step-selection function, telemetry},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}