The use of spatial memory is well documented in many animal species and has been shown to be critical for the emergence of spatial learning. Adaptive behaviors based on learning can emerge thanks to an interdependence between the acquisition of information over time and movement decisions. The study of how spatio-ecological knowledge is constructed throughout the life of an individual has not been carried out in a quantitative and comprehensive way, hindered by the lack of knowledge of the information an animal already has of its environment at the time monitoring begins. Identifying how animals use memory to make beneficial decisions is fundamental to developing a general theory of animal movement and space use. Here we propose several mobility models based on memory and perform hierarchical Bayesian inference on 11-month trajectories of 21 elk after they were released in a completely new environment. Almost all the observed animals exhibited preferential returns to previously visited patches, such that memory and random exploration phases occurred. Memory decay was mild or negligible over the study period. The fact that individual elk rapidly become used to a relatively small number of patches was consistent with the hypothesis that they seek places with predictable resources and reduced mortality risks such as predation.

中文翻译：

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易位麋鹿 (Cervus canadensis) 的分层、基于记忆的运动模型

空间记忆的使用在许多动物物种中都有很好的记录，并且已被证明对空间学习的出现至关重要。由于随着时间的推移获取信息和运动决定之间的相互依赖，基于学习的适应性行为可以出现。空间生态知识如何在个体的整个生命中构建的研究尚未以定量和全面的方式进行，因为缺乏对动物在监测开始时已经拥有的环境信息的了解。确定动物如何利用记忆做出有益的决定是发展动物运动和空间利用的一般理论的基础。在这里，我们提出了几种基于记忆的移动模型，并对 21 头麋鹿在全新环境中发布后的 11 个月轨迹进行分层贝叶斯推理。几乎所有观察到的动物都表现出对先前访问过的斑块的优先回报，从而发生记忆和随机探索阶段。在研究期间，记忆衰退是轻微的或可以忽略不计。个别麋鹿迅速适应数量相对较少的斑块这一事实与它们寻找资源可预测且死亡风险降低（如捕食）的地方的假设一致。在研究期间，记忆衰退是轻微的或可以忽略不计。个别麋鹿迅速适应数量相对较少的斑块这一事实与它们寻找资源可预测且死亡风险降低（如捕食）的地方的假设一致。在研究期间，记忆衰退是轻微的或可以忽略不计。个别麋鹿迅速适应数量相对较少的斑块这一事实与它们寻找资源可预测且死亡风险降低（如捕食）的地方的假设一致。