Modeling interdependent animal movement in continuous time

Niu, M., Blackwell, P. G. and Skarin, A. (2016) Modeling interdependent animal movement in continuous time. Biometrics, 72(2), pp. 315-324. (doi: 10.1111/biom.12454) (PMID:26812666)

Abstract

This article presents a new approach to modeling group animal movement in continuous time. The movement of a group of animals is modeled as a multivariate Ornstein Uhlenbeck diffusion process in a high‐dimensional space. Each individual of the group is attracted to a leading point which is generally unobserved, and the movement of the leading point is also an Ornstein Uhlenbeck process attracted to an unknown attractor. The Ornstein Uhlenbeck bridge is applied to reconstruct the location of the leading point. All movement parameters are estimated using Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling, specifically a Metropolis Hastings algorithm. We apply the method to a small group of simultaneously tracked reindeer, Rangifer tarandus tarandus, showing that the method detects dependency in movement between individuals.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Niu, Dr Mu
• Authors: Niu, M., Blackwell, P. G., and Skarin, A.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Mathematics and Statistics > Statistics
• Journal Name: Biometrics
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 0006-341X
• ISSN (Online): 1541-0420
• Published Online: 26 January 2016
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Biometrics 72(2): 315-324
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License