Identification and classification of behavior states in animal movement data can be complex, temporally biased, time-intensive, scale-dependent, and unstandardized across studies and taxa. Large movement datasets are increasingly common and there is a need for efficient methods of data exploration that adjust to the individual variability of each track. We present the Residence in Space and Time (RST) method to classify behavior patterns in movement data based on the concept that behavior states can be partitioned by the amount of space and time occupied in an area of constant scale. Using normalized values of Residence Time and Residence Distance within a constant search radius, RST is able to differentiate behavior patterns that are distance-intensive (e.g., area restricted search), time-intensive (e.g., rest), and transit (short time and distance). We use grey-headed albatross (
This manuscript is currently in review with Plos One. The R code is being developed into a package that will be available soon, but for now the code (and data and annotation) is available in the supplementary zip file supplied here.
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
The following information was supplied relating to ethical approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers):
All handling of albatross was conducted under permit issued by the New Zealand Department of Conservation and was approved by the NIWA animal ethics committee. All effort was made to minimize handling time and any suffering to animals.
The following information was supplied relating to field study approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers):
Field work on Campbell Island was approved by The New Zealand Department of Conservation.
The following information was supplied regarding data availability:
The grey-headed albatross dataset supporting the conclusions of this article is available in the BirdLife Seabird Tracking Database [http://seabirdtracking.org/; Dataset 1082]. The fisher, African buffalo, and Galapagos tortoise datasets are available from movebank.org, and the blue whale satellite track is available in Bailey et al. 2009.
The RST code is available in the supplementary zip file, and will soon be available as an R package.