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A new approach for the simultaneous tracking of multiple honeybees for analysis of hive behavior

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Abstract

Social activities are among the most striking of animal behaviors, and the clarification of their mechanisms is a major subject in ethology. Honeybees are a good model for revealing these mechanisms because they display various social behaviors, such as division of labor, in their colonies. Image processing is a precise and convenient tool for obtaining animal behavior data, but even recent methods are inadequate for the identification or description of honeybee behavior. This is because of the difficulty distinguishing between the large number of individuals in a small hive and their multiple movements. The present study developed a new computer-aided system, using a vector quantization method, for the identification and behavioral tracking of individual honeybees. The vector quantization method enabled separation of honeybee bodies in photographs recorded as a movie. This system succeeded in analyzing a huge number of frames quickly and can thus save both time and labor. Moreover, the system identified more than 72% of the bees in a hive and found and determined the active areas in the hive by extracting the trajectories of walking bees. In addition, useful behavioral data on the honeybee waggle dance were obtained using the present system.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by University of Hyogo, the Sanyo Special Steel Cultural Promotion Foundation, and a KAKENHI Grant (no. 20033023) for Scientific Research on the Priority Area “Emergence of Adaptive Motor Function through Interaction between Body, Brain and Environment” from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Human Science and Environment, University of Hyogo, 1-1-12, Shinzaike-honcho, Himeji, Hyogo, 670–0092, Japan

    Toshifumi Kimura, Mizue Ohashi & Hidetoshi Ikeno

  2. Kagawa School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokushima Bunri University, 1314-1, Shido, Sanuki, Kagawa, 769–2193, Japan

    Ryuichi Okada

Authors
  1. Toshifumi Kimura
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  2. Mizue Ohashi
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  3. Ryuichi Okada
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  4. Hidetoshi Ikeno
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Correspondence to Toshifumi Kimura.

Additional information

Analyse du comportement dans la ruche: une nouvelle approche pour le suivi simultané de plusieurs abeilles.

suivi comportemental/abeille/ Apis mellifera /enregistrement du comportement/traitement de l’image

Eine neue Methode für die gleichzeitige Beobachtung von zahlreichen Bienen zur Verhaltensanalyse in einem Bienenvolk

Verhaltensbeobachtung/Honigbiene/ Apis mellifera /Bildbearbeitung

Manuscript editor: Monique Gauthier

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Kimura, T., Ohashi, M., Okada, R. et al. A new approach for the simultaneous tracking of multiple honeybees for analysis of hive behavior. Apidologie 42, 607–617 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-011-0060-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-011-0060-6

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