Revisitation analysis

Published

November 28, 2025

recurse package

The recurse R package can be used to analyse revisitation patterns in animal movement data. It provides functions to identify and quantify the number of times an animal returns to specific locations, as well as the duration of stays at those locations. This can be useful for understanding habitat use, foraging behavior, and territoriality.

Recurse vignette (tutorial)

https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/recurse/vignettes/recurse.html

Key reference

Bracis, C., Bildstein, K. L., & Mueller, T. (2018). Revisitation analysis uncovers spatio-temporal patterns in animal movement data. Ecography, 41(11), 1801–1811. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.03618

Application paper

Campbell, H. A., Loewensteiner, D. A., Murphy, B. P., Pittard, S., & McMahon, C. R. (2020). Seasonal movements and site utilisation by Asian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) in tropical savannas and floodplains of northern Australia. Wildlife Research , 48(3), 230–239. https://doi.org/10.1071/WR20070

---
title: "Revisitation analysis"
# author: 
#   - name: "Scott Forrest"
#     url: https://swforrest.github.io/
#     orcid: 0000-0001-9529-0108
#     affiliation: Queensland University of Technology, CSIRO
#     email: "scottwforrest@gmail.com"
date: today
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bibliography: ../paperpile_references.bib
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---

## recurse package

The `recurse` R package can be used to analyse revisitation patterns in animal movement data. It provides functions to identify and quantify the number of times an animal returns to specific locations, as well as the duration of stays at those locations. This can be useful for understanding habitat use, foraging behavior, and territoriality.

#### Recurse vignette (tutorial)
<https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/recurse/vignettes/recurse.html>

#### Key reference
Bracis, C., Bildstein, K. L., & Mueller, T. (2018). **Revisitation analysis uncovers spatio-temporal patterns in animal movement data**. Ecography, 41(11), 1801–1811. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.03618

#### Application paper

Campbell, H. A., Loewensteiner, D. A., Murphy, B. P., Pittard, S., & McMahon, C. R. (2020). **Seasonal movements and site utilisation by Asian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) in tropical savannas and floodplains of northern Australia**. Wildlife Research , 48(3), 230–239. https://doi.org/10.1071/WR20070