ESTIMATION OF MANATEE (TRICHECHUS MANATUS LATIROSTRIS) PLACES AND MOVEMENT CORRIDORS USING TELEMETRY DATA.

The article focuses on the estimation of manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) places and movement corridors. The researchers developed a raster-based spatial model that transformed radio-telemetry point data to surfaces illustrating the areas manatees visited frequently for relatively long periods, called places and areas visited frequently for short periods, called movement corridors. The article involves simulating manatee movement paths between sequential telemetry points using a cost surface based on manatee bathymetric preferences that were derived from empirical associations between telemetry locations and water depth, distributing movement time to cells that were crossed by the simulated movement path, and extracting cells from the movement-path map that qualified as places and those that qualified as corridors. Movement characteristics of wild and rehabilitated animals were similar. Movement rates of males were significantly greater than those of either females with calves or females without calves. Mean number of visits per cell and mean time per visit for the three adult classes were not significantly different.