Fig. 4

Hulls versus Isopleths. Using the simulated movement trajectory, home ranges can be delimited using the hulls themselves (a,c,e) or the isopleths (b,d,f) derived from the level of overlap among hulls (in this case, the 95% isopleth is displayed). When the k value is relatively small (k=5), the hulls (a) outline the movements of the animal very closely, offering insight, not only into core areas, but also potentially important movement corridors. Using isopleths (b) at low k values may result in large holes throughout the home range while failing to capture corridors. At moderate and high k values (c,d,e,f), both the hulls and isopleths begin to fill in many of the ancillary features, delimiting similar home ranges at slightly different rates (i.e., at k=25, the isopleths (f) resemble the home range outlined by the hulls at k=15 (c)). This illustrates the issue of underfitting when using hulls at high k values and overfitting when using isopleths at low k values. The algorithm proposed here serves to balance these two scenarios as effectively as possible