Benford’s Law for Telemetry Data of Wildlife
Benford’s law (<i>BL</i>) specifies the expected digit distributions of data in social sciences, such as demographic or financial data. We focused on the first-digit distribution and hypothesized that it would apply to data on locations of animals freely moving in a natural habitat. We b...
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MDPI AG
2021-11-01
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| Series: | Stats |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2571-905X/4/4/55 |
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| author | Lasse Pröger Paul Griesberger Klaus Hackländer Norbert Brunner Manfred Kühleitner |
| author_facet | Lasse Pröger Paul Griesberger Klaus Hackländer Norbert Brunner Manfred Kühleitner |
| author_sort | Lasse Pröger |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Benford’s law (<i>BL</i>) specifies the expected digit distributions of data in social sciences, such as demographic or financial data. We focused on the first-digit distribution and hypothesized that it would apply to data on locations of animals freely moving in a natural habitat. We believe that animal movement in natural habitats may differ with respect to <i>BL</i> from movement in more restricted areas (e.g., game preserve). To verify the <i>BL</i>-hypothesis for natural habitats, during 2015–2018, we collected telemetry data of twenty individuals of wild red deer from an alpine region of Austria. For each animal, we recorded the distances between successive position records. Collecting these data for each animal in weekly logbooks resulted in 1132 samples of size 65 on average. The weekly logbook data displayed a <i>BL</i>-like distribution of the leading digits. However, the data did not follow <i>BL</i> perfectly; for 9% (99) of the 1132 weekly logbooks, the chi-square test refuted the <i>BL</i>-hypothesis. A Monte Carlo simulation confirmed that this deviation from <i>BL</i> could not be explained by spurious tests, where a deviation from <i>BL</i> occurred by chance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:04:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1137d16f983e4f9bb7b3aae78453d676 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2571-905X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:04:28Z |
| publishDate | 2021-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Stats |
| spelling | doaj.art-1137d16f983e4f9bb7b3aae78453d6762023-11-23T10:35:03ZengMDPI AGStats2571-905X2021-11-014494394910.3390/stats4040055Benford’s Law for Telemetry Data of WildlifeLasse Pröger0Paul Griesberger1Klaus Hackländer2Norbert Brunner3Manfred Kühleitner4Department of Integrative Biology and Biodiversity Research, Institute of Wildlife Biology and Game Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), 1180 Vienna, AustriaDepartment of Integrative Biology and Biodiversity Research, Institute of Wildlife Biology and Game Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), 1180 Vienna, AustriaDepartment of Integrative Biology and Biodiversity Research, Institute of Wildlife Biology and Game Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), 1180 Vienna, AustriaDepartment of Integrative Biology and Biodiversity Research, Institute of Mathematics, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), 1180 Vienna, AustriaDepartment of Integrative Biology and Biodiversity Research, Institute of Mathematics, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), 1180 Vienna, AustriaBenford’s law (<i>BL</i>) specifies the expected digit distributions of data in social sciences, such as demographic or financial data. We focused on the first-digit distribution and hypothesized that it would apply to data on locations of animals freely moving in a natural habitat. We believe that animal movement in natural habitats may differ with respect to <i>BL</i> from movement in more restricted areas (e.g., game preserve). To verify the <i>BL</i>-hypothesis for natural habitats, during 2015–2018, we collected telemetry data of twenty individuals of wild red deer from an alpine region of Austria. For each animal, we recorded the distances between successive position records. Collecting these data for each animal in weekly logbooks resulted in 1132 samples of size 65 on average. The weekly logbook data displayed a <i>BL</i>-like distribution of the leading digits. However, the data did not follow <i>BL</i> perfectly; for 9% (99) of the 1132 weekly logbooks, the chi-square test refuted the <i>BL</i>-hypothesis. A Monte Carlo simulation confirmed that this deviation from <i>BL</i> could not be explained by spurious tests, where a deviation from <i>BL</i> occurred by chance.https://www.mdpi.com/2571-905X/4/4/55Benford’s law (<i>BL</i>)logbookhabitat useMonte Carlo simulationred deer (<i>Cervus elaphus</i>)telemetry |
| spellingShingle | Lasse Pröger Paul Griesberger Klaus Hackländer Norbert Brunner Manfred Kühleitner Benford’s Law for Telemetry Data of Wildlife Stats Benford’s law (<i>BL</i>) logbook habitat use Monte Carlo simulation red deer (<i>Cervus elaphus</i>) telemetry |
| title | Benford’s Law for Telemetry Data of Wildlife |
| title_full | Benford’s Law for Telemetry Data of Wildlife |
| title_fullStr | Benford’s Law for Telemetry Data of Wildlife |
| title_full_unstemmed | Benford’s Law for Telemetry Data of Wildlife |
| title_short | Benford’s Law for Telemetry Data of Wildlife |
| title_sort | benford s law for telemetry data of wildlife |
| topic | Benford’s law (<i>BL</i>) logbook habitat use Monte Carlo simulation red deer (<i>Cervus elaphus</i>) telemetry |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2571-905X/4/4/55 |
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