DOI: 10.5061/dryad.qbzkh18kc
title: Where did the finch go? Insights from radio telemetry of the medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis)

description: Movement patterns and habitat selection of animals have important
 implications for ecology and evolution. Darwin's finches are a
 classic model system for ecological and evolutionary studies, yet their
 spatial ecology remains poorly studied. We tagged and radio-tracked five
 (three females, two males) medium ground finches (Geospiza fortis) to
 examine the feasibility of telemetry for understanding their movement and
 habitat use. Based on 143 locations collected during a three-week period,
 we analysed, for the first time, home-range size and habitat selection
 patterns of finches at El Garrapatero, an arid coastal ecosystem on Santa
 Cruz Island (Galápagos). The average 95% home range and 50% core area
 for G. fortis in the breeding season were
 20.54 ha ± 4.04 ha SE and 4.03 ha ± 1.11 ha SE, respectively. For most of the finches, their home range covered a diverse set of habitats. Three finches positively selected the dry-forest habitat, while the other habitats seemed to be either negatively selected or simply neglected by the finches. In addition, we noted a communal roosting behaviour in an area close to the ocean, where the vegetation is greener and denser than the more inland dry-forest vegetation. We show that telemetry on Darwin’s finches provides valuable data to understand the movement ecology of the species. Based on our results, we propose a series of questions about the ecology and evolution of Darwin’s finches that can be addressed using telemetry.
description: Please, refer to the article and the README.
description: # Data from: Where did the finch go? Insights from radio telemetry of the
 medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis) VERSION v.00001.2022-03-31 **Author
 Information** Corresponding Investigator Name: Marc-Olivier Beausoleil
 Institution: McGill University Email:
 marc-olivier.beausoleil@mail.mcgill.ca Co-investigator 1 Name: Carlos
 Camacho Institution 1: Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología—CSIC Institution 2:
 Lund University Co-investigator 2 Name: Julio Rabadán-González
 Institution: Observation.org Co-investigator 3 Name: Kristen Lalla
 Institution: McGill University Co-investigator 4 Name: Roxanne Richard
 Institution: McGill University Co-investigator 5 Name: Paola
 Carrion-Avilés Institution: McGill University Co-investigator 6 Name:
 Andrew P. Hendry Institution: McGill University Co-investigator 7 Name:
 Rowan D. H. Barrett Institution: McGill University **Date of data
 collection:** 2019 **Geographic location of data collection:** El
 Garrapatero, Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos, Ecuador (0°41'22.9"
 S, 90°13'19.7" W) **Funding sources that supported the
 collection of the data:** Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
 Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery and Canada Research Chair grant
 (A.P.H.) NSERC Discovery Grant and Canada Research Chair grant (R.D.H.B.)
 NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship, Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and
 Sustainability (BESS) NSERC CREATE (M.-O.B) Fonds de recherche du Québec,
 Nature et technologies Scholarship (M.-O.B) **Keywords** behaviour,
 communal roosting, Geospiza fortis, habitat selection, home range, spatial
 ecology **Recommended citation for this dataset:** Beausoleil, M.-O. et
 al. (2022), Where did the finch go? Insights from radio telemetry of the
 medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis), Dryad, Dataset,
 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qbzkh18kc ## DATA & FILE OVERVIEW
 1\. Description of dataset and scripts The dataset and script were
 developed to 1. Explore Darwin’s finch movement and space use ; 2.
 Ascertain data quantity and quality for a 3-week data collection period;
 3. Identify limitations of radio-telemetry methods in a volcanic terrain.
 To fulfil these aims, we deployed VHF radio-telemetry tags on a focal
 sample of five medium ground finches (Geospiza fortis) on Santa Cruz in
 the Galápagos, Ecuador. We then estimated the home range and core area of
 these birds in the arid coastal zone and characterized their habitat
 selection patterns and movement behaviour. The scripts and data and for
 the R language (R Core Team 2022; R version, 4.0.4 (Lost Library Book)).
 2\. File List: File 1 Name:
 Beausoleil\_2022\_G.fortis.telemetry.data.RData Description: Data to
 generate the main figures. File 2 Name: Beausoleil\_2022\_Main.figures.R
 Description: The main script generates the main figures. Dependencies:
 requires "Beausoleil\_2022\_initialize.R" and
 "Beausoleil\_2022\_add\_legend\_to\_empty\_facet.R". File 3
 Name: Beausoleil\_2022\_initialize.R Description: Load packages and custom
 functions for the analyses Dependencies: Installation of the packages File
 4 Name: Beausoleil\_2022\_add\_legend\_to\_empty\_facet.R Description:
 Function to plot legend in ggplot. ## METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION
 DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR:
 Beausoleil\_2022\_G.fortis.telemetry.data.RData 1\. Number of variables:
 See below. 2\. Number of cases/rows: See below. 3\. Variable List: -
 \`elgar.hab\` (6 rows): - Polygon of habitat (sf object), - geometry (a
 polygon or multipolygon) for the habitats, "Beach", "Inland
 water", "Manzanillo Forest", "Opuntia Forest",
 "Pacific Sea", and "Road Paved". - \`data.birds\` (143
 rows): - Locations of all birds (sf object with a data frame) - pid (point
 ID) - band (band number of each bird) - PointType (the bird's
 activity: "Diurnal activity", "Nest", and
 "Roosting") - date (of the observed point), and - geometry
 (containing the coordinates of the points). - \`razimuth.data\` (219
 rows): - Razimuth data.frame that was input in the model (raw data) -
 indiv (number of each bird) - obs\_id (identification number for the point
 that was recorded) - utm\_x (x coordinate) - utm\_y (y coordinate) -
 azimuth (in angle) - date (of the observed point) - PointType (the
 bird's activity: "Diurnal activity", "Nest", and
 "Roosting"), - prior\_r (prior for the model) - \`model.matrix\`
 (116 rows): Locations of the finches in data frame format estimated with
 the azimuthal telemetry model - \`model.output.list\` (length 5): List of
 the 5 MCMC models output (from razimuth package), one for each bird. 4\.
 Missing data codes: None 5\. Abbreviations used: None 6\. Other relevant
 information: Please refer to the article. ## REFERENCES R Core Team. 2022.
 R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for
 Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria.