Physical and Biological Mechanisms in Animal Movement Processes

Abstract

We have analysed a large set of animal locations from a telemetry study of a herd of domestic sheep, Ovis aries, in order to test an alternative model for area-utilization functions. Our model incorporates the special effects emerging from complex movement patterns, which have made the traditional home range demarcation protocols so difficult to employ. The telemetry location plots approached a statistically self-similar fractal pattern with dimension 1.5 as the overall plot density (n) increased. The home range area expanded on average as a function of n without any apparent asymptotic approach to a «true» home range area. The regression of log(area) versus log(n) was approximately linear, with slope 0.5 for samples of 10-1433 coordinate plots