IGN 13-5
Network models: Applications for wildlife epidemiology

Thursday, August 8, 2013
101C, Minneapolis Convention Center
Meggan Craft, University of Minnesota
Damien Caillaud, The University of Texas at Austin
Jennifer JH Reynolds, University of Minnesota
Ben T. Hirsch, New York State Museum, Albany, NY
Lauren Ancel Meyers, Section of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Contact network models are a flexible approach for investigating disease dynamics, and have provided epidemiological insight across a wide range of wild animal social systems. While flexible and powerful, this methodology is hampered by lack of detailed contact data. I will discuss traditional and new technology based strategies for collecting sufficient behavioral data from raccoons to African lions, and the utility of modeling contact patterns in wild animal populations.