Statistical analysis of Asiatic cheetah movement and its spatio-temporal drivers

Abstract

We analyzed the movement behavior of a male Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus), a critically endangered species, to understand its habitat preferences and relationship to its ambient environment. Using a hidden Markov chain approach, we identified distinct behavioral phases within the cheetah's movement track. We explored the conditions under which the cheetah switched between these behavioral phases. We computed summary statistics of the displacement and duration for the portion of time that the animal had constant behavior and found a linear pattern between its displacement and duration per behavioral phases. We then employed resource-selection and step-selection approaches to understand the cheetah's habitat preferences in general. The cheetah preferred intermediate elevations, low to intermediate slopes, intermediate distances from villages and shorter distances to the water resources. The cheetah moved over a range of 1137 km2, mainly staying in the more montane northern part of the range. With further validation, the environmental variables and their relationship with the cheetah's behavior could be employed to aid in the conservation of this rare cat.