State-Space Modelling of the Drivers of Movement Behaviour in Sympatric Species.

ABSTRACT: Understanding animal movement behaviour is key to furthering our knowledge on intra- and inter-specific competition, group cohesion, energy expenditure, habitat use, the spread of zoonotic diseases or species management. We used a radial basis function surface approximation subject to minimum description length constraint to uncover the state-space dynamical systems from time series data. This approximation allowed us to infer structure from a mathematical model of the movement behaviour of sheep and red deer, and the effect of density, thermal stress and vegetation type. Animal movement was recorded using GPS collars deployed in sheep and deer grazing a large experimental plot in winter and summer. Information on the thermal stress to which animals were exposed was estimated using the pow

SUBMITTER: Perez-Barberia FJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4651358 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature