Radiotelemetry has become a nearly essential tool in many modern studies of animal behavior, ecology, management and conservation because of the dramatic increases in our technological capabilities to locate animals.  It is common to use radiotelemetry to study animal movement, survival, migration, dispersal, space use, home range size, habitat use, and resource selection.  The primary objectives of this workshop are to briefly review historic methods for analysis of home range, resource selection and space use and describe new approaches that use information theoretic tools to evaluate multivariate models of animal movement, resource selection and space use based on underlying ecological processes (e.g. defending a territory, provisioning a nest/den, foraging, accumulating knowledge of resource distributions, dispersing) and fundamental theoretical models (e.g. random walks, optimal foraging).  Designing and analyzing studies of animals using radiotelemetry will be improved substantially through knowledge of the powerful statistical tools which have been developed for analysis of these data as well as how to apply basic principles of finite population sampling. The secondary objective is to introduce biologists to new software available to analyze radio tracking location data that simultaneously estimates home range and habitat selection as well as serially correlated data gathered with GPS or ARGOS satellite telemetry. 

Participants in this five-day workshop (May 25-29, 2010) will explore these powerful tools for estimating home range size, habitat use, and resource selection by applying them to real data on continuously monitored elk and deer at Starkey Experimental Forest and Range as well as data on mammals and birds from other studies.  Class size is limited to 22 participants and a minimum of 10 is required.  Workshop participants will accrue 32 contact hours toward The Wildlife Society’s Professional Development Program. Graduate credit from the Univ. of Idaho College of Graduate Studies is available for an additional fee.

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Monday 5/25 - 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

• Welcome and Introduction

• Experimental Design for Radiotelemetry
  Design Considerations
  Biological and Statistical Populations
  Populations and samples
  Estimation overview for home range, dispersal distance, habitat use, resource selection, space use, survival rate and fecundity

• Elements of Sampling
  Terminology
  How to select the sample
  Sources of errors
  Simple Random Sampling
  Stratification
  Cluster Sampling
  Hybrid Designs (2-stage)

Tuesday 5/26 - 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Home Range Size
  Concept: History
  Utilization volume/probability of use
  Core areas
  Polygon approaches
  Parametric probability contours
  Non-parametric utilization volumes
  Kernel density estimators
  Sample size

Wednesday 5/27 -  8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Home Range Size (cont.)
  Performance of estimators
  Survey sampling design: Populations
  Design: Animals
• New Developments in Home Range Estimation
  Fractal-based spatial analyses
  Generalized entropy
  Brownian bridges for serially correlated movement data
  Maximum likelihood approaches to parameter estimation, model selection and inference       

• Habitat Utilization & Resource Selection
  Univariate approaches:
        Chi-square & Bonferroni-CI
        Ratio estimators and CI on preference
        Manly's selectivity index
        Compositional analysis
        Euclidean distance

Thursday 5/28 - 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Effect of Sample Size on Performance of Resource Selection Methods
  Neu et al. (1974) Chi-square
  Friedman (1973) ANOVA on ranks
  Johnson (1980)
  Aebischer et al. (1996) Compositional Analysis  

• Multivariate Statistical Approaches
  Discriminant Analysis (MANOVA)
  Logistic Regression
  Principal components/ factor analysis  
  Multiple regression
  Selection differentials and gradients
  Ecological factor niche analysis
  Log linear models
  Marzluff's resource utilization functions
  Polytomous logistic regression  
  Discrete choice modeling

Friday 5/29 - 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon

• Multivariate Statistical Approaches  
  Resource selection probability functions 
  Probabilistic approach (see below)
  
• Synoptic Model of Space-Habitat Use  

• Survival Analysis Incorporating spatial covariates 

• Fitness Estimation

Integrating models to estimate survival and reproductive success

This workshop is designed to be as practical as possible. Thus, the following activities are offered on a voluntary basis during labs or an evening session as desired.

Continuation of the lab exercises
Discussion of individual design problems submitted by the participants
Analysis of data brought by the participants
Individual help from the instructor

LOCATION AND TIME

All meetings will be held at the College of Natural Resources (Room 14), 6th and Line Street, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho. Meetings will run from 1 p.m. on Monday, May 25  through noon on Friday, May 29, 2009.

PREREGISTRATION

The registration fee is $750 per participant. You may register on-line or print out the registration form and mail with payment to the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844-1136.

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HOUSING

Housing is the responsibility of the registrant. A block of rooms has been reserved at the University Inn/Best Western. To receive the special rate, please call 208-882-0550 or 800-325-8765 and mention that you are with the New Approaches to Radiotelemetry Workshop.

CREDIT

Workshop participants will accrue 38 contact hours toward The Wildlife Society's Professional Development Program, or credits toward other societies (AFS, ESA, SCB) continuing education requirements for professionals.  One graduate credit for Wlf 504 is available from the University of Idaho's College of Graduate Studies for an additional fee.  Graduate credit requires completing all lab assignments and writing a short paper after the course concludes.

QUESTIONS

For transportation, registration, or logistical information, please call the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources at 208-885-6434 or fish_wildlife@uidaho.edu.