Simultaneous estimation of the temporal and spatial extent of animal migration using step lengths and turning angles.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Animals of many different species, trophic levels, and life history strategies migrate, and the improvement of animal tracking technology allows ecologists to collect increasing amounts of detailed data on these movements. Understanding when animals migrate is important for managing their populations, but is still difficult despite modelling advancements.

Methods

We designed a model that parametrically estimates the timing of migration from animal tracking data. Our model identifies the beginning and end of migratory movements as signaled by change-points in step length and turning angle distributions. To this end, we can also use the model to estimate how an animal's movement changes when it begins migrating. In addition to a thorough simulation analysis, we test

SUBMITTER: Thompson PR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10775566 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature