Spatial models of animal mobility: buffalo and cattle in Southern Africa

A spatial model of animal mobility has been developed for buffalo and cattle at the interface between protected areas and rural communal lands in southern Africa. It simulates the movements of African buffalo (Syncerus caffer caffer) and domestic cattle (Bos taurus, Bos indicus) and has been applied at three interface areas located at the perophery of national parks in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The model is based on a stochastic, agent-based approach and predicts the herds and individual animals locations from satellite-derived environmental data (land cover and water surfaces). The model has be developed using Ocelet domain specific language for modelling spatial dynamics, which comes with a model development and simulation environment: Ocelet Modelling Platform. http://www.ocelet.org