Permissible Home Range Estimation (PHRE) in Restricted Habitats: A New Algorithm and an Evaluation for Sea Otters.

ABSTRACT: Parametric and nonparametric kernel methods dominate studies of animal home ranges and space use. Most existing methods are unable to incorporate information about the underlying physical environment, leading to poor performance in excluding areas that are not used. Using radio-telemetry data from sea otters, we developed and evaluated a new algorithm for estimating home ranges (hereafter Permissible Home Range Estimation, or "PHRE") that reflects habitat suitability. We began by transforming sighting locations into relevant landscape features (for sea otters, coastal position and distance from shore). Then, we generated a bivariate kernel probability density function in landscape space and back-transformed this to geographic space in order to define a permissible home range. Compared to t

SUBMITTER: Tarjan LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4803229 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature