title: Big data analyses reveal patterns and drivers of the movements of southern elephant seals.
abstract: The growing number of large databases of animal tracking provides an opportunity for analyses of movement patterns at the scales of populations and even species. We used analytical approaches, developed to cope with "big data", that require no 'a priori' assumptions about the behaviour of the target agents, to analyse a pooled tracking dataset of 272 elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) in the Southern Ocean, that was comprised of >500,000 location estimates collected over more than a decade. Our analyses showed that the displacements of these seals were described by a truncated power law distribution across several spatial and temporal scales, with a clear signature of directed movement. This pattern was evident when analysing the aggregated tracks despite a wide diversity of individual trajectories. We also identified marine provinces that described the migratory and foraging habitats of these seals. Our analysis provides evidence for the presence of intrinsic drivers of movement, such as memory, that cannot be detected using common models of movement behaviour. These results highlight the potential for "big data" techniques to provide new insights into movement behaviour when applied to large datasets of animal tracking.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos IFISC (CSIC-UIB), E07122, Palma de Mallorca, Spain. jorge@ifisc.uib-csic.es.
authors.forename: Jorge P
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6593-5032
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fernández-Gracia
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute of Marine Science, Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre, University of Western Australia (M470), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thums
authors.affiliation: School of Zoology, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 05, Hobart, Tasmania, 7001, Australia.
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7823-7185
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hindell
authors.affiliation: IOMRC and The UWA Oceans Institute, School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia, M470, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Ana M M
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5241-8917
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Sequeira
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute of Marine Science, Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre, University of Western Australia (M470), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Mark G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Meekan
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California, 95060, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372 CNRS-Université de La Rochelle, 79360, Villiers-en-Bois, France.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Guinet
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, 2109, Australia.
authors.forename: Robert G
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4666-2934
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Harcourt
authors.affiliation: Sydney Institute of Marine Science, 19 Chowder Bay Road, Mosman, New South Wales, 2088, Australia.
authors.forename: Clive R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: McMahon
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Oceanografia, Caixa Postal 474, 96201-900, Rio Grande, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muelbert
authors.affiliation: Red Sea Research Center (RSRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Carlos M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Duarte
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos IFISC (CSIC-UIB), E07122, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
authors.forename: Víctor M
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1133-1289
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Eguíluz
mesh_terms: D025041:Animal Migration; D000818:Animals; D057225:Data Mining; D017753:Ecosystem; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D008124:Locomotion; D046048:Seals, Earless / Q000502:physiology*; D062206:Spatial Analysis