HOOFS - a Multi-scale, Agent-based Simulation Framework for Studying the Impact of Grazing Animals on the Environment

An agent based system (HOOFS) has been developed in order to examine the interactions between foraging animals and a spatially explicit description of the environment, including vegetation growth processes. HOOFS makes use of the agent-based approach to develop a model of foraging in which animal decision making processes are explicitly modelled. The model has evolved from one where foraging decisions are based on a simple biased random walk model with an information weighting parameter, through one in which animals decide between direct walking towards an object as against continuous foraging, ending with a model where memory is used. The model was used to study utilisation of heather around grass patches in a heather-grass mosaic. Model refinement using remote imaging and animal GPS data together with appropriate statistical methods shows the way forward in making a model formulation suitable for predictive modelling.