Small mammal ARTS: Orion receiver data for site radiomapping and vole tracking, and scripts and results for localization and activity estimates

This data set accompanies “An Automated Radio-Telemetry System (ARTS) for Monitoring Small Mammals”. 
The behavior of small fossorial mammals, such as voles, is extremely difficult to observe in natural environments. Small mammals were traditionally studied with labor intensive methods such as trapping and recapture or radio telemetry via homing, which require week/months of work and produce static home range estimates.
In pursuit of better understanding natural history and behavioral ecology we implemented an automated radio telemetry system (ARTS) to continuously monitor small mammals. We used an isotropic antenna array coupled with broadband receivers to estimate animal positions with nonlinear least squares, nonparameteric, and Bayesian trilateration methods. We then used Lomb-Scargle periodograms to estimate activity patterns of freely-behaving Prairie voles.