Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
very little time at the nest (Stahl and Sagar
2000
). The estimated hatching date, the
start of the intermittent guard stage and of the post guard stage in Fig.
3
are
referenced from Stahl and Sagar (
2000
, p. 305). In comparison with the two-
dimensional trajectories, timelines depict a much richer 'story' of the breeding
biology of the albatrosses, once again demonstrating the powerful visualisation
capabilities of time geography.
This cameo introduction of albatross and animal movement serves to ease the
transition to discussion of the second significant data set, that of the possum data
captured by Dennis and his colleagues (Dennis et al.
2010
) on the outskirts of West
Auckland. For the animal domain, the albatross support Lenntorp's early
affirmation for humans that the timeline ''can provide an equally operational basis
for understanding ecological forms as the molecule does in many of the natural
sciences'' (Lenntorp
2004
, p. 223), because the structure of a timeline reflects the
basic processes that produce movement (Nathan et al.
2008
). The main charac-
teristics of timelines are simplicity; a focus on individuals; and inseparability of
space and time (Thrift
1977
). They provide a simple but powerful individual view
of movement, in which logics of space, time, activity and geography intermesh
(Forer
2005
). While we may not be comfortable to attribute the notion of formal
logic to animal behaviour the various abilities of animals to navigate and
efficiently interact with their environment are appreciable, and evidence accruing
from the growth in animal movement studies suggests we may have underesti-
mated them considerably in the past. In any event, the above comments on time
geography are not totally lost in respect of animal as well as human movement.
Hägerstrand's perspective has resonance with that of Nathan et al. (
2008
) in their
proposal for modelling movement ecologies of animals based on four components
that affect animal movement behaviour: Navigational capacity, motion capacity,
internal state and external factors. Each of these interactive components equally
reflects an approach to human movement, but with often substantive qualification.
In the next section we cross examine factors that influence movement of both
humans and animals.
2 Factors That Influence Movement of Sentient Objects
Although movement is a universal feature of many entities, the primary focus of
this paper is movement of sentient objects. Because such objects are capable of
perception and are possessed of a certain quality of intelligence, they experience
behaviour and establish goals. Sentient objects retain the same identity from birth
to death, regularly exhibit cyclic behaviours, and interact with elements in their
environment. The unique qualities and characteristics of sentient objects make
understanding the causes of their patterns of movement especially challenging.
Why do humans and sentient animals move? What similar or unique factors affect
their patterns of movements? In this section we discuss these questions with the
hope that they may provide support for further developing or modifying techniques
