Exploratory movement analysis and report building with R package stmove

Abstract

BackgroundAs GPS tags and data loggers have become lighter, cheaper, and longer-lasting, there has been a growing influx of data on animal movement. Simultaneously, methods of analyses and software to apply such methods to movement data have expanded dramatically. Even so, for many interdisciplinary researchers and managers without familiarity with the field of movement ecology and the open-source tools that have been developed, the analysis of movement data has remained an overwhelming challenge.\n\nDescriptionHere we present stmove, an R package designed to take individual relocation data and generate a visually rich report containing a set of preliminary results that ecologists and managers can use to guide further exploration of their data. Not only does this package make report building and exploratory data analysis (EDA) simple for users who may not be familiar with the extent of available analytical tools, but it sets forth a framework of best practice analyses, which offers a common starting point for the interpretation of terrestrial movement data.\n\nResultsUsing data from African elephants (Loxodonta africana) collected in southern Africa, we demonstrate stmoves report building function through the main analyses included: path visualization, primary statistic calculation, summary in space and time, and space-use construction.\n\nConclusionsThe stmove package provides consistency and increased accessibility to managers and researchers who are interested in movement analysis but who may be unfamiliar with the full scope of movement packages and analytical tools. If widely adopted, the package will promote comparability of results across movement ecology studies.