This course provides an introduction to the analysis of animal movement data using R. Participants will learn how to read and process animal movement datasets, identify and handle outliers, and calculate fundamental movement metrics such as step lengths, directions, and net squared displacement. The course also covers home-range analyses and concludes with an introduction to describing movement patterns using statistical distributions.

This course is designed for graduate students and researchers with a basic knowledge of R and familiarity with RStudio. Some understanding of statistical distributions will be helpful for the final session, though it is not essential. A basic background in GIS concepts is also beneficial.
Example datasets and code will be provided, but participants are encouraged to bring their own movement data if available.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

1. Import and manage movement data in R.

2. Identify and flag erroneous GPS fixes.

3. Compute basic movement metrics.

4. Conduct home-range analyses and understand common estimators.

5. Work with datasets involving multiple animals.

6. Describe movement patterns using statistical distributions.

More advanced techniques in animal movement analysis, as well as more in-depth explanations of the methods, are presented in the course Habitat Selection of Animals from Telemetry Data with R, given by the same instructors.

Sessions run from 14:00 to 18:00 (Berlin time) and include lectures and code walkthroughs.

Monday (14:00–18:00)

• Introduction to animal movement data.

• Describing movement using steps and turns.

• Detecting and handling outliers in movement data.

Tuesday (14:00–18:00)

• Home-range analysis: concepts and practical implementation.

• Managing and analyzing data from multiple animals.

Wednesday (14:00–18:00)

• Describing movement using random and correlated random walks.

• Modeling steps and turns using statistical distributions.

Should you have any further questions, please send an email to [email protected]