Ironside, K.E., Mattson, D., Choate, D., Stoner, D., Arundel, T.R., Hansen, J., Theimer, T., Holton, B., Jansen, B., Sexton, J.O., Longshore, K., Edwards, Jr., T.C., Peters, M., 2015, Variable Terrestrial GPS Telemetry Detection Rates: Parts 1 - 7—Data: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7PG1PT2.
GPS telemetry is becoming a standard study method to observe many wide ranging, elusive wildlife species and is providing unequivocal information on their locations over time. GPS observations are being used for inference on a variety of research topics, but few studies are taking imperfect detection in GPS into account, leading to potential model misspecification and underestimating effects of model covariates. In cases where data loss is significant, non-detection could hamper conservation and management efforts by omitting certain habitats frequently used. Here we improve our understanding of the primary factors that result in failed fix attempts in terrestrial GPS telemetry, by providing a measure of terrain that correlates well with how topography masks and creates multipath signals from GPS satellites. This effect is also amplified by tall vegetation that attenuates signal strength. By improving our understanding of the factors that affect GPS fix acquisition performance we inherently improve our ability to correct for bias it introduces into models. Our results suggest that the primary influence on FSR of GPS collars are environmental factors that can, on average, be captured at the scale of currently available GIS layers over a wide range of vegetation types and landforms.
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