Simulation modelling of habitat permeability for mammalian wildlife

Started: 4th October 2010
Research Team: Angela Watkins
Investigators: Patrick Doncaster, Jason Noble

This project will focus on exploring the way that mammals interact with, and move around their environment. The work will focus on landscape-scale movements of two case studies; the jaguar in Belize, and the red-bellied beautiful squirrel in Argentina.

These species offer the opportunity to explore both sides of the conservation debate; how to enhance and facilitate animal movements between protected areas and existing populations (jaguars), and how to reduce the spread of an invasive species (squirrels).

This work constitutes a novel approach to utilising and integrating least-cost models and agent-based simulations with ground-truthed habitat data. The aim is to identify how the animals currently move through the landscape. Future work may involve scenario-testing of conservation strategies and/or identifying corridors that may serve as functional links between populations and suitable habitats.

Links to related works:

Belize Wildlife Corridor

Studying wildlife in Belize

Introduced squirrels in Argentina

Computational Modelling Group

Simulation modelling of habitat permeability for mammalian wildlife

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