Determining Detection Requirements for Individuals Used in Categorical Resource Selection Analyses

ABSTRACT Resource selection analyses of telemetry data are often conducted on categorical measurements of use and availability. Refinement of early resource selection analysis techniques has resulted in use of individuals as the sample unit rather than the number of telemetry detections. However, the minimum number of telemetry detections required for an individual animal to be included as a sample unit must reflect the number of detections needed to accurately describe the individual's resource use. We developed a method to determine the minimum number of detections required to accurately describe categorical resource use of an animal. The mean standard selection ratio (MSSR) described herein can be used to effectively design telemetry projects and efficiently allocate field resources by knowing, a priori, the number of telemetry detections needed to explain resource selection for individual animals and ultimately for an animal population. Additionally, the MSSR technique can be used following data colle...