Moving‐resting process with measurement error in animal movement modeling

Abstract

Statistical modeling of animal movement is of critical importance. The continuous trajectory of an animal s movements is only observed at discrete, often irregularly spaced time points. Most existing models cannot handle the unequal sampling interval naturally and/or do not allow inactivity periods such as resting or sleeping. The recently proposed moving-resting (MR) model is a Brownian motion governed by a telegraph process, which allows periods of inactivity in one state of the telegraph process. The MR model shows promise in modeling the movements of predators with long inactive periods such as many felids, but the lack of accommodation of measurement errors seriously prohibits its application in practice. Here we incorporate measurement errors in the MR model and derive basic properties of the model. Inferences are based on a composite likelihood using the Markov property of the chain composed by every other observed increments. The performance of the method is validated in finite sample simulation studies. Application to the movement data of a mountain lion in Wyoming illustrates the utility of the method.