A Comparison of GLM, GEE, and GLMM Applied to Badger Activity Data

In this chapter, we analyse a data set consisting of signs of badger (Meles meles; see Fig. 22.1) activity around farms. The data are longitudinal and from multiple farms; so it is likely a temporal correlation structure is required. The response variable is binary; the presence or absence of badger activity. The dataset comes from a survey carried out on 36 farms over 8 consecutive seasons running from autumn 2003 to summer 2005. For analytical convenience, we consider these intervals to be exactly equal, which is a close enough approximation to the reality. All farms in the survey were in South-West England, which is a high-density badger country.