Analysis of Elk and Hunter Movement Data from the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range

• Activity Number: 254
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 4, 2014 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics and the Environment
• Author(s): Suzette Puente*+ and Michael J. Wisdom and Scott L. Findholt
• Companies: University of California, Berkeley and Pacific Northwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
• Keywords: ecology ; spatio-temporal statistics ; spatial statistics ; movement data ; GPS ; elk

Abstract

Improvement of GPS telemetry technology has allowed ecologists to record wildlife movements in abundance and with finer precision. With GPS devices, researchers can examine animal movement on both a population level and an individual level. In this work, we apply spatio-temporal methods to movement data to characterize relationships between elk and hunters at the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range (Starkey). Data obtained from Starkey consist of six years of radio GPS collar recordings from a subset of the animals and GPS recordings from all hunters. Previous work on these data considered models in which elk react to hunters. Here, we consider the interactions of hunters and elk, as well. Throughout, we evaluate the effect of hunters on elk movement during a paired control period.