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  • Open Access

Strong Anomalous Diffusion for Free-Ranging Birds

Ohad Vilk1,2,*, Motti Charter3, Sivan Toledo4, Eli Barkai5, and Ran Nathan2

  • 1Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
  • 2Movement Ecology Lab, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
  • 3The Shamir Research Institute and School of Environmental Sciences, University of Haifa, 199 Aba Hushi Boulevard, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel
  • 4Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
  • 5Department of Physics, Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel

  • *Contact author: ohad.vilk@mail.huji.ac.il
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PRX Life 3, 033020 – Published 9 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/yqpg-tn5y

Abstract

Diffusion and anomalous diffusion are widely observed and used to study movement across organisms, resulting in extensive use of the mean and mean-squared displacement,. However, these measures, corresponding to specific displacement moments, do not capture the full complexity of movement behavior. Using high-resolution data from more than 70 million localizations of young and adult free-ranging barn owls (Tyto alba), we reveal strong anomalous diffusion as nonlinear growth of displacement moments. The moment spectrum function λt(q), defined by 〈|x(t)|q〉∼tλt(q), displays piecewise linearity in q, with a critical moment marking the crossover between scaling regimes. This highlights the need of a broad spectrum of displacement moments to characterize movement, which we link to age-specific ecological drivers. Furthermore, a characteristic timescale of 5 minutes marks an unexpected transition from a convex to a concave λt(q). Using two stochastic models, a bounded Lévy walk and a multimode behavioral model, we account for the observed phenomena, showing good agreement with data, relating age-specific behavioral states to environmentally confined movement, and demonstrating how Lévy-walklike patterns can arise from the underlying behavioral structure. Finally, we discuss the ecological significance of our results, arguing that strong anomalous diffusion may be widespread in animal movement.

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PRX Life 3, 033020– Published 9 September, 2025
  • Received 5 November 2024
  • Accepted 8 August 2025
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