Abstract
Long-term, remote monitoring of animals under natural conditions is essential for obtaining information on animal activity. Advances in biotelemetry have led to the construction of low-power accelerometers placed on Global Positioning System (GPS) collars. Such acceleration data from roe deer have not yet been classified to the various behavioral categories. Here, we determined the threshold values of such data for different behavioral categories. We equipped captive roe deer with Global Positioning System–Global System for Mobile Communications/dual-axis acceleration sensor neck collars and simultaneously measured their movement and observed their behavior. The difference between feeding and slow locomotion was significant on the x- but not the y-axis, and both of these two behavioral categories differed significantly from resting and fast locomotion. Specific thresholds for the behavioral categories—resting, feeding, and slow and fast locomotion—were established by recursive partitioning. We compared the behavior determined by these threshold values with observed behavior and found that 92% of the behavioral categories were correctly assigned. A comparison of our results with those of earlier studies showed that thresholds derived for one species cannot be directly applied to another species. We provide recommendations for the further development of acceleration sensors based on the results obtained in this study.
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Acknowledgements
This study is part of a project on the predator–prey relationship of lynx, red deer, and roe deer carried out by the Bavarian Forest National Park Administration, Department of Research and Documentation. Immobilizing, GPS collaring, and behavioral observations complied with the German law. Financial support was provided by T-mobile, the EU-program Interreg IIIa, the “Jagdabgabe Bayern,” and the Bavarian Forest National Park Administration. We are grateful to Dr. Sylvia Ortmann and the Institute of Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, for providing access to their captive roe deer and for permitting GPS collaring and behavioral observations. We thank Kathleen Röllig for immobilizing the animals, Torsten Kleckers for carrying out the behavioral observations, and Martin Gahbauer and Horst Burghart for technical support. We thank an anonymous referee for valuable comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript.
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Communicated by: Dries Kuijper
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Heurich, M., Traube, M., Stache, A. et al. Calibration of remotely collected acceleration data with behavioral observations of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus L.). Acta Theriol 57, 251–255 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-011-0068-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-011-0068-3