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How did they get here from there? Detecting changes of direction in terrestrial ranging

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posted on 2023-06-09, 13:57 authored by R W Byrne, R Noser, Lucy Bates, P E Jupp
Efficient exploitation of large-scale space is crucial to many species of animal, but the difficulties of studying how animals decide on travel routes in natural environments have hampered scientific understanding of environmental cognition. Field experiments allow researchers to define travel goals for their subjects, but practical difficulties restrict large-scale studies. In contrast, data on natural travel patterns are abundant and easy to record, but hard to interpret without circularity and subjectivity when making inferences about when and why an animal began heading to a particular location. We present a method of determining objectively the point at which an animal’s travel path becomes directed at a location, for instance a distant feeding site, based on the statistical characteristics of its route. We evaluate this method and illustrate how it can be tailored to particular problems, using data that is (a) synthetic; (b) from baboons, where travel is from a single sleeping site in an overlapping home range, and (c) from chimpanzees, where sleeping sites are unlimited within a large territory. We suggest that this ‘change- point test’ might usefully become a routine first step in interpreting the decision- making behind animal travel under natural conditions.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Animal Behaviour

ISSN

0003-3472

Publisher

Elsevier

Issue

3

Volume

77

Page range

619-631

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-06-25

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-06-25

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-06-22

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