Advances in animal tracking technologies have reduced but not eliminated positional error. While aware of such inherent error, scientists often proceed with analyses that assume exact locations. The results of such analyses then represent one realization in a distribution of possible outcomes. Evaluating results within the context of that distribution can strengthen or weaken our confidence in conclusions drawn from the analysis in question. We evaluated the habitat-specific positional error of stationary GPS collars placed under a range of vegetation conditions that produced a gradient of canopy cover. We explored how variation of positional error in different vegetation cover types affects a researcher's ability to discern scales of movement in analyses of first-passage time for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). We placed 11 GPS collars in 4 different vegetative canopy cover types classified as the proportion of cover above the collar (0–25%, 26–50%, 51–75%, and 76–100%). We simulated the effect of positional error on individual movement paths using cover-specific error distributions at each location. The different cover classes did not introduce any directional bias in positional observations (1 m≤mean≤6.51 m, 0.24≤p≤0.47), but the standard deviation of positional error of fixes increased significantly with increasing canopy cover class for the 0–25%, 26–50%, 51–75% classes (SD = 2.18 m, 3.07 m, and 4.61 m, respectively) and then leveled off in the 76–100% cover class (SD = 4.43 m). We then added cover-specific positional errors to individual deer movement paths and conducted first-passage time analyses on the noisy and original paths. First-passage time analyses were robust to habitat-specific error in a forest-agriculture landscape. For deer in a fragmented forest-agriculture environment, and species that move across similar geographic extents, we suggest that first-passage time analysis is robust with regard to positional errors.

Hunting regulations traditionally applied to manage deer populations in rural areas are not well suited to management in heavily populated suburban landscapes. We evaluated the spatial genetic structure of a suburban deer population to assess the feasibility of localized management at the scale of social groups. We used fecal DNA from white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in suburban Michigan to determine whether deer in suburban landscapes maintain the matrilineal social structure that has been observed in studies of rural deer. We amplified 7 microsatellite loci from fecal pellets (n = 591) collected from August to October 2013 on public and private lands throughout Meridian Township, Ingham County, central Michigan, USA. Based on multi‐locus genotypes, we identified individuals, quantified the extent of spatial genetic structure at multiple spatial scales, identified the location and spatial extent of aggregations of related females and males, and estimated genetic neighborhood size. We also used landscape genetic analyses to evaluate associations between measures of land cover, edge density, the presence of major roads, and inter‐individual genetic distance. Spatial genetic autocorrelation was positive and significant up to a distance of 0.5 km. We did not detect correlations between landscape variables and inter‐individual genetic distance. Results indicate that deer in suburban landscapes exhibit familial structure reported for deer in more rural areas, albeit at a smaller spatial scale, and with substantial overlap among groups. Management at the spatial scales of genetically related groups of deer may be feasible in suburban communities. © 2018 The Wildlife Society.