Fig. 4

Output of simulations used to determine the home ranges sizes that can be statistically distinguished from the null home range of stationary GPS tags. The plotted data represent the results of a series of t tests of differences between the means of simulated home ranges and the mean of the null distribution of home ranges. The null distribution had an estimated mean of 3.77 ha and standard of 1.555 ha. We generated a set of 1000 simulated home ranges by drawing a random sample from a normal distribution with the mean varied from 3.67 to 4.77 and a standard deviation of 1.555 (equal with null model, as estimated from the stationary tags). We ran the simulation twice using realistic sample sizes (n = 10 and n = 50, shown in grey and blue dots, respectively) for ecological studies of animal movement. Solid lines show linear regression of t as a function of home range means (black line for n = 10 and blue line for n = 50). The red arrows indicate the home range area at the point, where predicted mean t transects the critical t value (~ 1.68 for a one-side t test with degrees of freedom between 30 and 120)