Modeling animal movement for sustainable livestock management

An ongoing interdisciplinary project conducted in Argentina looks to understand how the population dynamics of sheep, and
therefore livestock production, depends on individual behavior, climate, landscape structure and management in order to improve
the design of sustainable management strategies aimed at solving real problems of animal production and conservation of natural
resources. Data from a total of 60 sheep were collected in Patagonia, both GPS (at a 5 min temporal resolution) and
accelerometer data (40 Hz), over a period of 8 months in order to examine how the sheep alternate between a limited set of
stereotypic behaviors, each characterized by different movement strategies, in response to changes in their internal states and in
the environment. Due to the large number of individuals and the amount of data collected, this dataset is unique and provides
many opportunities for development of statistical methodology to answer practical questions related to natural grasslands
conservation and development of sustainable management practices.

Faculty Supervisor:

Vianey Leos Barajas;Radu Craiu

Student:

Partner:

Universidad Nacional de Rosario

Discipline:

Mathematics

Sector:

Sustainability & the Environment; Natural Resources; Environmental Science and Technology

University:

University of Toronto

Program: