Data from: Variability in the movement and foraging behaviour of female Eurasian lynx during the denning season across Europe
Data files
Sep 02, 2025 version files 2.42 MB
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absence_from_den_dataset_12_fix.xlsx
254.10 KB
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absence_from_den_dataset.xlsx
1.02 MB
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daily_distances_12_fix_resolution_df.xlsx
91.35 KB
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daily_distances_dataset.xlsx
458.56 KB
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den_duration_dataset.xlsx
21.86 KB
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distances_from_den_dataset_12fix.xlsx
106.37 KB
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distances_from_den_dataset.xlsx
435.37 KB
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kill_dens_df.xlsx
12.02 KB
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README.md
20.32 KB
Abstract
Animal movement and reproductive behaviour are crucial components of ecological and evolutionary processes. After parturition, the behaviour of reproducing females adapts to the needs of their offspring, including thermoregulation, protection, and food provisioning. However, little is known about how these adaptations vary across environmental conditions at larger scales in species with large distribution ranges. Here, we explored how female Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) movement and predation patterns change during the denning season. We analysed GPS telemetry data from two different climatic regions in Europe, cold and temperate, and evaluated the effect of explanatory variables on movement metrics and kill-to-den distances using generalized additive mixed models. Female lynx moved significantly longer daily distances in the cold region (central and northern Scandinavia) compared to the temperate region (southern Scandinavia and continental Europe), both before and after parturition. Reproducing females in both regions considerably reduced their movement after the start of the denning season. The typical pattern of increasing daily movements and decreasing time spent at the den with time persisted across regions, and the presence of females at the den followed a similar circadian rhythm, regardless of the markedly different daylight period. Only in the cold region females increased the distances of their excursions from the den as time passed. The distances between den and kill sites spanned from 1 to 3 km over the latitudinal range. The kill-to-den distances did not increase with time, but in the cold region the larger prey killsites were farther from the den than in the temperate region. Overall, our results show how some behaviours of female lynx during the denning season remain constant over a large latitudinal range, while others vary. This suggests local adaptations to particular environments, and possible increased energetic demands of reproducing females in more extreme environmental conditions.
This README file describes the provided datasets for the R analysis of Eurasian lynx den movement patterns, den use and feeding behaviour during the denning season, through Generalized Additive Models (GAMs).
File name: den_duration_dataset.xlsx
Dataset Title: Data for the analysis of the duration of use of Eurasian lynx dens across Europe.
Description of the data and file structure
According to our paper, this dataset contains the information required to run the GAM models related to duration of use of lynx dens. It includes cluster id for each den (cluster_id), animal id (animal_id), climatic region (region), indication of whether the den was verified in the field (field_confirmed_den), den type (den_type), date of the start of use of each den (date_use_start), last date of use of each den (date_use_end), duration of use of each den (duration_den_use), dennig season id (animal_year), denning home range (aKDE_denning_hr). All these variables were derived from GPS location data. Please check the publication for details.
- Format(s): .xlsx
- Size(s): 21.86 KB
- Dimensions: 161 rows x 10 columns
- Variables:
- cluster_id - Unique ID for each GPS Location Cluster (GLC) associated with a den.
- aimal_id - Unique ID for each female lynx individual.
- region - Climatic region where each den is found; 'north_clim' - cold region, 'temp_clim' - temperate region.
- field_confirmed_den - Indication of whether the den was checked in the field by researchers; 'NO'- the den was not checked in the field, 'YES' - the den was checked in the field by researchers. We only included non-field checked dens in the analysis (rows where the 'field_confirmed_den' variable has the value 'NO').
- den_type - Type of the den; 'natal' - the first den, where the kittens are born; 'secodary' - all other dens where the female may later move the kittens.
- date_use_start - Date corresponding to the first GPS fix within the GLC of the den.
- date_use_end - Date corresponding to the last GPS fix within the GLC of the den.
- duration_den_use - Number of days between the first GPS fix and the last GPS fix of the GLC of the den.
- animal_year - Unique ID for each denning season of each female lynx individual.
- aKDE_denning_hr - Denning seasonal home range, in square kilometers, determined as the 95% isopleth of the autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimation with all fixes included within the two months of the denning season of each individual lynx. The denning season home ranges were only calculated if there were at least 30 GPS points and 10 days of GPS data available. If these conditions were not met, the corresponding cells within this column were left empty.
File name: daily_distances_dataset.xlsx
Dataset Title : Data for the analysis of the distances moved per day by female Eurasian lynx during the denning season across Europe
Description of the data and file structure
This dataset contains the information required to run the GAM models related to daily distances moved by female lynx, accordingly to our paper. It includes climatic region (region), lynx individual id (animal_id), denning season id (aimal_year), date (date), distance moved (daily_distace_moved), dataset type (dataset), number of days to or from the birth date of the kittens (diff_tempo), reproductive status (kittens), proportion of missing locations per day (na_proportion). All these variables were derived from GPS location data. Please check the publication for details.
- Format(s): .xlsx
- Size(s): 458.56 KB
- Dimensions: 9265 rows x 9 columns
- Variables:
- region - Climatic region where each den is found; 'north_clim' - cold region, 'temp_clim' - temperate region.
- animal_id - Unique ID for each female lynx individual.
- animal_year - Unique ID for each denning season of each female lynx individual.
- date - Date expressed in YYYY-mm-dd
- daily_distance_moved - Distance moved per day, in meters.
- dataset - dataset type; 'full' - all GPS resolutions above 6 fixes/24 hours are icluded, 'stand' - data standardized by subsampling the data from the 'full' dataset to 6 GPS fixes per 24 hours.
- diff_tempo - Day within the pre-denning and the denning seasons. The negative values indicate the number of days to the birth-date of the kittens within the pre-denning period, and the positive values indicate the umber of days from the birth date, within the denning season.
- kittens - reproductive status of the female lynx; 'no' - female did not reproduce (reproduction event not detected), 'yes' - female reproduced.
- na_proportion - proportion of missing GPS fixes per 24 hours.
File name: daily_distances_12_fix_resolution_df.xlsx
Dataset Title: Data for the analysis of the distances moved per day by female Eurasian lynx during the denning season across Europe, with a raw GPS resolution of 12 fixes/ 24 hours in the full dataset
Description of the data and file structure
This dataset is a subsample of the previous dataset containing the information required to run the GAM models related to daily distances moved by female lynx. Specifically we selected the resolution of 12 GPS fixes per day in the full dataset and the corresponding data in the standardized dataset, accordingly to our paper.
- Format(s): .xlsx
- Size(s): 91.35 KB
- Dimensions: 1838 rows x 9 columns
- Variables:
- region - Climatic region where each den is found; 'north_clim' - cold region, 'temp_clim' - temperate region.
- animal_id - Unique ID for each female lynx individual.
- animal_year - Unique ID for each denning season of each female lynx individual.
- date - Date expressed in YYYY-mm-dd
- daily_distance_moved - Distance moved per day, in meters.
- dataset - dataset type; 'full' - data with a raw GPS resolution of 12 fixes per 24 hours, 'stand' - data standardized by subsampling the data from the 'full' dataset to 6 GPS fixes per 24 hours.
- diff_tempo - Day within the pre-denning and the denning seasons. The negative values indicate the number of days to the birth-date of the kittens within the pre-denning period, and the positive values indicate the umber of days from the birth date, within the denning season.
- kittens - reproductive status of the female lynx; 'no' - female did not reproduce (reproduction event not detected), 'yes' - female reproduced.
- na_proportion - proportion of missing GPS fixes per 24 hours.
File name: absence_from_den_dataset.xlsx
Dataset Title : Data for the analysis of female Eurasian lynx absence from the den during the denning season across Europe
Description of the data and file structure
This dataset contains the information required to run the GAM models related to the absence from the den of female Eurasian lynx, accordingly to our paper. It includes date (date), climatic region (region), lynx individual id (animal_id), denning season id (animal_year), dataset type (dataset), absence of the female from the den (absence_from_den), number of days to or from the birth date of the kittens (diff_tempo), hour of the day (hour), annual home range (aKDE_annual_hr), pre-denning home range (aKDE_pre_denning_hr), denning home range (aKDE_denning_hr). All these variables were derived from GPS location data. Please check the publication for details.
- Format(s): .xlsx
- Size(s): 1.02 MB
- Dimensions: 26147 rows x 11 columns
- Variables:
- date - Date expressed in YYYY-mm-dd.
- region - Climatic region where each den is found; 'north_clim' - cold region, 'temp_clim' - temperate region.
- animal_id - Unique ID for each female lynx individual.
- animal_year - Unique ID for each denning season of each female lynx individual.
- dataset - dataset type; 'full' - all GPS resolutions above 6 fixes/24 hours are icluded, 'stand' - data standardized by subsampling the data from the 'full' dataset to 6 GPS fixes per 24 hours.
- absence_from_the_den - absence of the female lynx from the den; '0'- the female lynx is within 100 m of distance from her active den, '1' - the female lynx is more than 100 m away from her active den.
- diff_tempo - Day within the denning season. It indicates the number of days passed from the birth date.
- hour - hour of the day.
- aKDE_annual_hr - Annual home range, in square kilometers, determined as the 95% isopleth of the autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimation with all within one year for each individual lynx.
- aKDE_pre_denning_hr - Pre-denning seasonal home range, in square kilometers, determined as the 95% isopleth of the autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimation with all fixes included within the 30 days of the pre-denning season for each individual lynx. The pre-denning season home ranges were only calculated if there were at least 30 GPS points and 10 days of GPS data available. If these conditions were not met the corresponding cells within this column were left empty.
- aKDE_denning_hr - Denning seasonal home range, in square kilometers, determined as the 95% isopleth of the autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimation with all fixes included within the two months of the denning season for each individual lynx. The denning season home ranges were only calculated if there were at least 30 GPS points and 10 days of GPS data available. If these conditions were not met the corresponding cells within this column were left empty.
File name: absence_from_den_dataset_12_fix.xlsx
Dataset Title : Data for the analysis of female Eurasian lynx absence from the den during the denning season across Europe, with a raw GPS resolution of 12 fixes/ 24 hours in the full dataset
Description of the data and file structure
This dataset is a subsample of the previous dataset containing the information required to run the GAM models related to the absence from the den of female Eurasian lynx. Specifically we selected the resolution of 12 GPS fixes per day in the full dataset and the corresponding data in the standardized dataset, accordingly to our paper.
- Format(s): .xlsx
- Size(s): 254.1 KB
- Dimensions: 6743 rows x 11 columns
- Variables:
- date - Date expressed in YYYY-mm-dd.
- region - Climatic region where each den is found; 'north_clim' - cold region, 'temp_clim' - temperate region.
- animal_id - Unique ID for each female lynx individual.
- animal_year - Unique ID for each denning season of each female lynx individual.
- dataset - dataset type; 'full' - data with a raw GPS resolution of 12 fixes per 24 hours, 'stand' - data standardized by subsampling the data from the 'full' dataset to 6 GPS fixes per 24 hours.
- absence_from_the_den - absence of the female lynx from the den; '0'- the female lynx is within 100 m of distance from her active den, '1' - the female lynx is more than 100 m away from her active den.
- diff_tempo - Day within the denning season. It indicates the number of days passed from the birth date.
- hour - hour of the day.
- aKDE_annual_hr - Annual home range, in square kilometers, determined as the 95% isopleth of the autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimation with all within one year for each individual lynx.
- aKDE_pre_denning_hr - Pre-denning seasonal home range, in square kilometers, determined as the 95% isopleth of the autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimation with all fixes included within the 30 days of the pre-denning season for each individual lynx. The pre-denning season home ranges were only calculated if there were at least 30 GPS points and 10 days of GPS data available. If these conditions were not met the corresponding cells within this column were left empty.
- aKDE_denning_hr - Denning seasonal home range, in square kilometers, determined as the 95% isopleth of the autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimation with all fixes included within the two months of the denning season for each individual lynx. The denning season home ranges were only calculated if there were at least 30 GPS points and 10 days of GPS data available. If these conditions were not met the corresponding cells within this column were left empty.
File name: distances_from_den_dataset.xlsx
Dataset Title : Data for the analysis of the distances from the den of female Eurasian lynx during the denning season across Europe
Description of the data and file structure
This dataset contains the information required to run the GAM models related to the distances from the den of female Eurasian lynx, accordingly to our paper. It includes date (date), climatic region (region), lynx individual id (animal_id), denning season id (animal_year), distance from the den (dist_den), dataset type (dataset), number of days to or from the birth date of the kittens (diff_tempo), hour of the day (hour), annual home range (aKDE_annual_hr), pre-denning home range (aKDE_pre_denning_hr), denning home range (aKDE_denning_hr). All these variables were derived from GPS location data. Please check the publication for details.
- Format(s): .xlsx
- Size(s): 435.37 KB
- Dimensions: 8692 rows x 11 columns
- Variables:
- date - Date expressed in YYYY-mm-dd.
- region - Climatic region where each den is found; 'north_clim' - cold region, 'temp_clim' - temperate region.
- animal_id - Unique ID for each female lynx individual.
- animal_year - Unique ID for each denning season of each female lynx individual.
- dist_den - Distance from the location of the den, in meters.
- dataset - dataset type; 'full' - all GPS resolutions above 6 fixes/24 hours are icluded, 'stand' - data standardized by subsampling the data from the 'full' dataset to 6 GPS fixes per 24 hours.\
- diff_tempo - Day within the denning season. It indicates the number of days passed from the birth date.
- hour - hour of the day.
- aKDE_annual_hr - Annual home range, in square kilometers, determined as the 95% isopleth of the autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimation with all within one year for each individual lynx.
- aKDE_pre_denning_hr - Pre-denning seasonal home range, in square kilometers, determined as the 95% isopleth of the autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimation with all fixes included within the 30 days of the pre-denning season for each individual lynx. The pre-denning season home ranges were only calculated if there were at least 30 GPS points and 10 days of GPS data available. If these conditions were not met the corresponding cells within this column were left empty.
- aKDE_denning_hr - Denning seasonal home range, in square kilometers, determined as the 95% isopleth of the autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimation with all fixes included within the two months of the denning season for each individual lynx. The denning season home ranges were only calculated if there were at least 30 GPS points and 10 days of GPS data available. If these conditions were not met the corresponding cells within this column were left empty.
File name: distances_from_den_dataset_12fix.xlsx
Dataset Title : Data for the analysis of the distances from the den of female Eurasian lynx during the denning season across Europe, with a raw GPS resolution of 12 fixes/ 24 hours in the full dataset
Description of the data and file structure
This dataset is a subsample of the previous dataset containing the information required to run the GAM models related to the distances from the den of female Eurasian lynx. Specifically, we selected the resolution of 12 GPS fixes per day in the full dataset and the corresponding data in the standardized dataset, accordingly to our paper.
- Format(s): .xlsx
- Size(s): 106.37 KB
- Dimensions: 2105 rows x 11 columns
- Variables:
- date - Date expressed in YYYY-mm-dd.
- region - Climatic region where each den is found; 'north_clim' - cold region, 'temp_clim' - temperate region.
- animal_id - Unique ID for each female lynx individual.
- animal_year - Unique ID for each denning season of each female lynx individual.
- dist_den - Distance from the location of the den, in meters.
- dataset - dataset type; 'full' - data with a raw GPS resolution of 12 fixes per 24 hours, 'stand' - data standardized by subsampling the data from the 'full' dataset to 6 GPS fixes per 24 hours.\
- diff_tempo - Day within the denning season. It indicates the number of days passed from the birth date.
- hour - hour of the day.
- aKDE_annual_hr - Annual home range, in square kilometers, determined as the 95% isopleth of the autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimation with all within one year for each individual lynx.
- aKDE_pre_denning_hr - Pre-denning seasonal home range, in square kilometers, determined as the 95% isopleth of the autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimation with all fixes included within the 30 days of the pre-denning season for each individual lynx. The pre-denning season home ranges were only calculated if there were at least 30 GPS points and 10 days of GPS data available. If these conditions were not met the corresponding cells within this column were left empty.
- aKDE_denning_hr - Denning seasonal home range, in square kilometers, determined as the 95% isopleth of the autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimation with all fixes included within the two months of the denning season for each individual lynx. The denning season home ranges were only calculated if there were at least 30 GPS points and 10 days of GPS data available. If these conditions were not met the corresponding cells within this column were left empty.
File name: kill_dens_df.xlsx
Dataset Title : Data for the analysis of the kill-to-den distances for female Eurasian lynx during the denning season across Europe
Description of the data and file structure
This dataset contains the information required to run the GAM models related to the distances from the den of female Eurasian lynx, accordingly to our paper. It includes date (date_estimated), lynx individual id (animal_id), den id (den_id), distance between killsite and den (kill_to_den_distance), date of the firstGPS fix within the cluster of the den (den_use_start), number of days to or from the date of start of use of the den (time_since_den), prey type (prey_type), climatic region (region). All these variables were derived from GPS location data and from field checking of the GLCs related to killsites. Please check the publication for details.
- Format(s): .xlsx
- Size(s): 12.02 KB
- Dimensions: 140 rows x 8 columns
- Variables:
- date_estimated - Estimated date of predation related to the killsite.
- animal_id - Unique ID for each female lynx individual.
- den_id - Unique ID for each den.
- kill_to_den_distance - Distance, in meters, between the location of the killsite and the correspondig active den.
- den_use_start - Date correspondig to the first GPS fix within the GLC of the den.
- time_since_den - Number of days passed since the establishmet of the den.
- prey_type - Prey type in relation to size; 'small_prey' - prey less than 7 Kg, 'ungulates' - ugulate prey above 7 Kg.
- region - Climatic region where each den is found; 'Cold' - cold region, 'Temperate' - temperate region.
Contact Information
- Name: Naima Dalpiaz
- Affiliations: Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
- ORCID ID: [https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7072-4840]
- Email: [dalpiaznaima@gmail.com]
Additional Dataset Metadata
Acknowledgements
- We obtained tracking data through the EUROLYNX network (https://euromammals.org/eurolynx/). This is the paper number 8 in the EUROLYNX series. We would like to thank all EUROLYNX members for the stimulating discussions. We are extremely grateful to all the personnel involved in data collection (veterinarians, field technicians, researchers, hunters, rangers, volunteers, and students), including lynx capturing and collaring, as well as field-checking of GPS clusters.
Dates and Locations
- Dates of data collection: Field data for all study areas collected in several periods between 2004 and 2022.
- Geographic locations of data collection: Fieldwork conducted in several areas across a large latitudinal gradient in Europe (see publication and Figure 1 for more details).