Integrated animal movement and spatial capture-recapture models: simulation, implementation, and inference

Over the last decade, spatial capture-recapture (SCR) models have become widespread for estimating demographic parameters in ecological studies. However, the underlying assumptions about animal movement and space use are often not realistic. This is a missed opportunity because ecological questions related to animal space use, habitat selection, and behavior cannot be addressed with most SCR models, despite the fact that the data collected in SCR studies -- individual animals observed at specific locations and times -- can provide a rich source of information about how these processes relate to demographic rates. We developed SCR models that integrate complex movement processes that are typically inferred from telemetry data, including a simple random walk, correlated random walk (i.e., short-term directional persistence), and habitat-driven Langevin diffusion. We demonstrated how to formulate, simulate from, and fit these models with standard SCR data using Bayesian analysis methods. W...