Capturing foraging and resting behavior using nested multivariate Markov models in an air-breathing marine vertebrate.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Matching animal movement with the behaviors that shape life history requires a rigorous connection between the observed patterns of space use and inferred behavioral states. As animal-borne dataloggers capture a greater diversity and frequency of three dimensional movements, we can increase the complexity of movement models describing animal behavior. One challenge in combining data streams is the different spatial and temporal frequency of observations. Nested movement models provide a flexible framework for gleaning data from long-duration, but temporally sparse, data sources.

Results

Using a two-layer nested model, we combined geographic and vertical movement to infer traveling, foraging and resting behaviors of Humpback whales off the West Antarctic Peninsula.

SUBMITTER: Weinstein BG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6146519 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature