Radio Tracking and Animal Populations is a succinct synthesis of emerging technologies and their applications to the empirical and theoretical problems of population assessment. The book is divided into sections designed to encompass the various aspects of animal ecology that may be evaluated using radiotelemetry technology - experimental design, equipment and technology, animal movement, resource selection, and demographics. Wildlife biologists at the leading edge of new developments in the technology and its application have joined forces.

Animal space use is complex, both from the individual and the population perspective. Spatial memory leads to site fidelity, emergence of home ranges, and multi-scaled use of the environment, and attraction to conspecifics—another memory-dependent property—contributes to population survival by counteracting decline in local abundance from unconstrained dispersal. However, memory effects, multi-scaled space use, and intra-specific cohesion present deep theoretical challenges for biophysical modelling. Animal Space Use presents a range of system descriptors, model designs, and simulations; intrinsic properties from memory and scaling are illustrated in detail, and classical models are scrutinized with respect to compliance with real data. The presentations of concepts are geared towards a broad audience of researchers and students with interest in animal space use. A joint effort between biologists, physicists, and statisticians is now on track to provide a more coherent theory for ecological inference—with a potential for stronger predictive power of ecological models than from more classical approaches. In Animal Space Use, Dr. Arild Gautestad advocates that an extension of the biophysical frame of reference may be needed to understand systems that express intrinsic complexity from the combined effects of scaling and memory. Any scientist in the field of animal ecology should stay abreast of the rapidly developing theory and applications of complex biophysics. This bold, provocative book provides an overview, a critical evaluation of existing concepts, and a wide range of theoretical proposals to resolve present challenges.

Animal space use is complex, from both the individual and population perspectives. Spatial memory leads to site fidelity, the emergence of home ranges, and multi-scaled use of the environment. Attraction to conspecifics—another memory-dependent property—contributes to population survival by counteracting decline in local abundance from unconstrained dispersal. However, memory effects, multi-scaled space use, and intra-specific cohesion present deep theoretical challenges for biophysical modelling. This book confronts these issues straight on, and presents a range of novel system descriptors, model designs, and simulations; intrinsic properties from memory and scaling are illustrated in detail, and classical models are scrutinized with respect to compliance with real data. The presentations of concepts are geared towards a broad audience of researchers and students with an interest in animal space use. The book advocates that an extension of the biophysical frame of reference may be needed to understand systems that express intrinsic complexity from the combined effects of scaling and memory. It boldly provides an overview and critical evaluation of existing concepts, and a wide range of theoretical proposals to resolve present challenges.

The study of animal movement has always been a key element in ecological science, because it is inherently linked to critical processes that scale from individuals to populations and communities to ecosystems. Rapid improvements in biotelemetry data collection and processing technology have given rise to a variety of statistical methods for characterizing animal movement. The book serves as a comprehensive reference for the types of statistical models used to study individual-based animal movement. Animal Movement is an essential reference for wildlife biologists, quantitative ecologists, and statisticians who seek a deeper understanding of modern animal movement models. A wide variety of modeling approaches are reconciled in the book using a consistent notation. Models are organized into groups based on how they treat the underlying spatio-temporal process of movement. Connections among approaches are highlighted to allow the reader to form a broader view of animal movement analysis and its associations with traditional spatial and temporal statistical modeling. After an initial overview examining the role that animal movement plays in ecology, a primer on spatial and temporal statistics provides a solid foundation for the remainder of the book. Each subsequent chapter outlines a fundamental type of statistical model utilized in the contemporary analysis of telemetry data for animal movement inference. Descriptions begin with basic traditional forms and sequentially build up to general classes of models in each category. Important background and technical details for each class of model are provided, including spatial point process models, discrete-time dynamic models, and continuous-time stochastic process models. The book also covers the essential elements for how to accommodate multiple sources of uncertainty, such as location error and latent behavior states. In addition to thorough descriptions of animal movement models, differences and connections are also emphasized to provide a broader perspective of approaches.

Research institutions have or are planning to build, expand and renovate animal research facilities to keep up with the demands of biomedical research caused in part by growth in the use of genetically altered rodents and the upsurge of research in infectious diseases. Properly designed facilities greatly facilitate effective management and high-quality day-to-day animal care that is required to optimally support animal research and testing. There are multiple solutions to address the myriad of factors that influence the design and construction of animal research facilities. There is no “best design applicable for all facilities and arguably not even a single “best design for a given facility. For this reason, Planning and Designing Research Animal Facilities is not intended to be a “how to book. The goal is to cover the basic programmatic requirements of animal research facilities, provide ideas for meeting those requirements while, hopefully, stimulating the creative process in which designers in consultation with those who work in animal research facilities generate even better ideas. That is how progress has been made and will continue to be made. Facilitates communication between the parties involved in planning and designing animal facilities by providing contemporary information, and stimulating creativity that will help lead to wise decisions and advance the knowledge base for planning, design and constructing animal research facilities

Animal space use is complex, both from the individual and the population perspective. Spatial memory leads to site fidelity, emergence of home ranges, and multi-scaled use of the environment, and attraction to conspecifics-another memory-dependent property-contributes to population survival by counteracting decline in local abundance from unconstrained dispersal. However, memory effects, multi-scaled space use, and intra-specific cohesion present deep theoretical challenges for biophysical modeling. Animal Space Use presents a range of system descriptors, model designs, and simulations; intrinsic properties from memory and scaling are illustrated in detail, and classical models are scrutinized with respect to compliance with real data. The presentations of concepts are geared towards a broad audience of researchers and students with interest in animal space use. A joint effort between biologists, physicists, and statisticians is now on track to provide a more coherent theory for ecological inference-with a potential for stronger predictive power of ecological models than from more classical approaches. In Animal Space Use, Dr. Arild Gautestad advocates that an extension of the biophysical frame of reference may be needed to understand systems that express intrinsic complexity from the combined effects of scaling and memory. Any scientist in the field of animal ecology should stay abreast of the rapidly developing theory and applications of complex biophysics. This bold, provocative book provides an overview, a critical evaluation of existing concepts, and a wide range of theoretical proposals to resolve present challenges. About the Author Dr. Arild O. Gautestad is a theoretical ecologist with particular interest in biophysical aspects of animal space use. For more than 25 years, he has studied individual movement and population kinetics by constructing mathematical models, performing computer simulations, and testing on real data. He has been a research fellow and researcher at University of Oslo, Norway, and is now affiliated with its Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis. Dr. Gautestad has presented his scientific work as a guest speaker, published papers in high-ranking journals (many coauthored with Ivar Mysterud, University of Oslo), and now in Animal Space Use.

The scientific study of networks - computer, social, and biological - has received an enormous amount of interest in recent years. However, the network approach has been applied to the field of animal behaviour relatively late compared to many other biological disciplines. Understanding social network structure is of great importance for biologists since the structural characteristics of any network will affect its constituent members and influence a range of diverse behaviours. These include finding and choosing a sexual partner, developing and maintaining cooperative relationships, and engaging in foraging and anti-predator behavior. This novel text provides an overview of the insights that network analysis has provided into major biological processes, and how it has enhanced our understanding of the social organisation of several important taxonomic groups. It brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines with the aim of providing both an overview of the power of the network approach for understanding patterns and process in animal populations, as well as outlining how current methodological constraints and challenges can be overcome. Animal Social Networks is principally aimed at graduate level students and researchers in the fields of ecology, zoology, animal behaviour, and evolutionary biology but will also be of interest to social scientists.