Open AccessA fresh look at an old concept: home-range estimation in a tidy world
Author(s) -
Johannes Signer,
John Fieberg
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
peerj
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.927
H-Index - 70
ISSN - 2167-8359
DOI - 10.7717/peerj.11031
Subject(s) - estimator , computer science , estimation , workflow , range (aeronautics) , set (abstract data type) , point estimation , point (geometry) , home range , data science , statistics , mathematics , ecology , engineering , biology , geometry , systems engineering , database , habitat , programming language , aerospace engineering
A rich set of statistical techniques has been developed over the last several decades to estimate the spatial extent of animal home ranges from telemetry data, and new methods to estimate home ranges continue to be developed. Here we investigate home-range estimation from a computational point of view and aim to provide a general framework for computing home ranges, independent of specific estimators. We show how such a workflow can help to make home-range estimation easier and more intuitive, and we provide a series of examples illustrating how different estimators can be compared easily. This allows one to perform a sensitivity analysis to determine the degree to which the choice of estimator influences qualitative and quantitative conclusions. By providing a standardized implementation of home-range estimators, we hope to equip researchers with the tools needed to explore how estimator choice influences answers to biologically meaningful questions.