Chapter 8 - Statistical Issues in Resource Selection Studies with Radio-Marked Animals

Abstract

Radiotelemetry studies of animals are designed to provide insights into resource selection so that managers can obtain, protect, and restore resources used by animals. A common approach to study resource selection using radiotelemetry data involves a comparison of resource use to resource availability. Resource selection occurs when resources are used disproportionately to availability. This chapter provides a review of the study designs, statistical issues, and analytical techniques used to study resource selection and provide practical guidance for biologists, resource managers, and others conducting studies of resource selection via radiotelemetry. It also focuses on statistical issues of scale, techniques for defining resource use and availability, pooling observations, independence of relocations, and variable and model selection and how these factors affect inference in resource selection studies. In most cases, the goal of a resource selection study is to make statistical inferences to a population of animals the radio-marked sample is assumed to represent. This is achieved by considering the radio-marked animal as the experimental unit to avoid pseudoreplication, thus reducing dependency problems when individual relocations are treated as experimental units.