Levy flight search patterns of marine predators not questioned: a reply to Edwards et al

Abstract

Edwards et al question aspects of the methods used in two of our published papers that report results showing Levy walk like and Levy flight movement patterns of marine predators.The criticisms are focused on the applicability of some statistical methodologies used to detect power law distributions.We reply to the principal criticisms levelled at each of these papers in turn including our own reanalysis of specific datasets and find that neither of our papers conclusions are overturned in any part by the issues raised.Indeed, in addition to the findings of our research reported in these papers there is strong evidence accumulating from studies worldwide that organisms show movements and behaviour consistent with scale invariant patterns such as Levy flights.