bsam: Bayesian State-Space Models for Animal Tracking Data

bsam provides tools to fit Bayesian state-space models to animal tracking data. The models are primarily intended for ARGOS satellite tracking data but can be adapted for other tracking types. The package was authored by Ian D. Jonsen.

Use Cases

• Filtering noisy location data from ARGOS satellite tags based on the state-space model framework.
• Estimating animal behavioral states (e.g., foraging vs. transit) from movement trajectories.
• Applying hierarchical models to analyze movement data from multiple individual animals.
• Conducting Markov Chain Monte Carlo convergence diagnostics for fitted movement models.

Strengths

• Provides specialized models for ARGOS satellite data, a common but noisy tracking source.
• Includes hierarchical model versions for analyzing data from multiple animals.
• Offers simplified MCMC diagnostic plotting tools for model assessment.

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Ian D. Jonsen

Collection Method

Software package for fitting models to tracking data; specific data source is user-provided.

Time Range

null

Freshness

unknown

Geography

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