What Movement Ecology Can Tell Us About Animal Cognition and Reproductive Strategies

The emerging field of movement ecology largely benefited from the recent development in wildlife tracking technologies, enhanced computation abilities and powerful data analysis tools. Movement ecology studies have utilized those technological advances, along with new conceptual/theoretical frameworks, to elucidate movement patterns, the underlying movement processes and their ecological and evolutionary consequences. Despite these significant advances, some of the key questions on how movement shapes the ecology, behavior and evolution of organisms across multiple spatial and temporal scales remain unresolved. In this talk, I will highlight some of the most exciting developments and challenges in movement ecology, and focus on insights relevant to the study of animal cognition and reproductive strategies. These include (i) first evidence for a cognitive map in wild animals (fruit bats) (ii) the effect of early-life experience in determining flight performance and survival of foraging vultures and migrating storks.