Predicting oscillatory dynamics in the movement of territorial animals

L Giuggioli, JR Potts, S Harris

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Understanding ecological processes relies upon the knowledge of the dynamics of each individual component. In the context of animal population ecology, the way animals move and interact is of fundamental importance in explaining a variety of observed patterns. Here, we present a theoretical investigation on the movement dynamics of interacting scent-marking animals.We study how the movement statistics of territorial animals is responsible for the appearance of damped oscillations in the mean square displacement (MSD) of the animals. This non-monotonicity is shown to depend on one dimensionless parameter, given by the ratio of the correlation distance between successive steps to the size of the territory. As that parameter increases, the time dependence of the animal’s MSD displays a transition from monotonic, characteristic of Brownian walks, to non-monotonic, characteristic of highly correlated walks. The results presented here represent a novel way of determining the degree of persistence in animal movement processes within confined regions
Translated title of the contributionPredicting oscillatory dynamics in the movement of territorial animals
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1529 - 1543
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of the Royal Society Interface
Volume9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2012

Research Groups and Themes

  • Engineering Mathematics Research Group

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Predicting oscillatory dynamics in the movement of territorial animals'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this