Home Range Calculator

This calculator approximates the classic Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP) home-range method with a circle: it treats Max Distance from Center as the radius of a circular home range and computes area as π times that radius squared, rather than fitting an actual convex polygon around the real relocation points. Max Distance from Center is therefore the only input that determines MCP Home Range, Home Range, and Home Range Perimeter -- since area scales with the square of the radius, doubling the distance quadruples the estimated area. The Half of MCP Area figure is exactly 50% of the polygon by area.

It is a geometric reference only -- it is NOT the "50% core area" of the wildlife literature, which is the 50% isopleth of the utilization distribution (the region holding half the animal's use) and is typically only about 10-20% of the total home range, not half of it. Observation Points does not affect the geometric area calculation at all -- it only feeds Sample Adequacy (a qualitative rating of whether enough relocations were collected, with 30+ generally considered a reliable minimum for MCP) and a rough upward adjustment applied to Sample-Corrected Area for small sample sizes, since an MCP built from too few points systematically underestimates the true home range and its area keeps rising until roughly 100 relocations. Treat this circular approximation as a quick estimate -- an actual MCP or kernel-density estimate from real GPS coordinates in dedicated wildlife-tracking software will differ, usually substantially, from a circle-based figure.