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Movement, resting, and attack behaviors of wild pumas are revealed by tri-axial accelerometer measurements
BACKGROUND: Accelerometers are useful tools for biologists seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the daily behavior of cryptic species. We describe how we used GPS and tri-axial accelerometer (sampling at 64 Hz) collars to monitor behaviors of free-ranging pumas (Puma concolor), which are diffic...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4337468/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25709837 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-015-0030-0 |
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author | Wang, Yiwei Nickel, Barry Rutishauser, Matthew Bryce, Caleb M Williams, Terrie M Elkaim, Gabriel Wilmers, Christopher C |
author_facet | Wang, Yiwei Nickel, Barry Rutishauser, Matthew Bryce, Caleb M Williams, Terrie M Elkaim, Gabriel Wilmers, Christopher C |
author_sort | Wang, Yiwei |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Accelerometers are useful tools for biologists seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the daily behavior of cryptic species. We describe how we used GPS and tri-axial accelerometer (sampling at 64 Hz) collars to monitor behaviors of free-ranging pumas (Puma concolor), which are difficult or impossible to observe in the wild. We attached collars to twelve pumas in the Santa Cruz Mountains, CA from 2010-2012. By implementing Random Forest models, we classified behaviors in wild pumas based on training data from observations and measurements of captive puma behavior. RESULTS: We applied these models to accelerometer data collected from wild pumas and identified mobile and non-mobile behaviors in captive animals with an accuracy rate greater than 96%. Accuracy remained above 95% even after downsampling our accelerometer data to 16 Hz. We were further able to predict low-acceleration movement behavior (e.g. walking) and high-acceleration movement behavior (e.g. running) with 93.8% and 92% accuracy, respectively. We had difficulty predicting non-movement behaviors such as feeding and grooming due to the small size of our training dataset. Lastly, we used model-predicted and field-verified predation events to quantify acceleration characteristics of puma attacks on large prey. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate that accelerometers are useful tools for classifying the behaviors of cryptic medium and large-sized terrestrial mammals in their natural habitats and can help scientists gain deeper insight into their fine-scale behavioral patterns. We also show how accelerometer measurements can provide novel insights on the energetics and predation behavior of wild animals. Lastly we discuss the conservation implications of identifying these behavioral patterns in free-ranging species as natural and anthropogenic landscape features influence animal energy allocation and habitat use. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40462-015-0030-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4337468 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-43374682015-02-24 Movement, resting, and attack behaviors of wild pumas are revealed by tri-axial accelerometer measurements Wang, Yiwei Nickel, Barry Rutishauser, Matthew Bryce, Caleb M Williams, Terrie M Elkaim, Gabriel Wilmers, Christopher C Mov Ecol Research BACKGROUND: Accelerometers are useful tools for biologists seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the daily behavior of cryptic species. We describe how we used GPS and tri-axial accelerometer (sampling at 64 Hz) collars to monitor behaviors of free-ranging pumas (Puma concolor), which are difficult or impossible to observe in the wild. We attached collars to twelve pumas in the Santa Cruz Mountains, CA from 2010-2012. By implementing Random Forest models, we classified behaviors in wild pumas based on training data from observations and measurements of captive puma behavior. RESULTS: We applied these models to accelerometer data collected from wild pumas and identified mobile and non-mobile behaviors in captive animals with an accuracy rate greater than 96%. Accuracy remained above 95% even after downsampling our accelerometer data to 16 Hz. We were further able to predict low-acceleration movement behavior (e.g. walking) and high-acceleration movement behavior (e.g. running) with 93.8% and 92% accuracy, respectively. We had difficulty predicting non-movement behaviors such as feeding and grooming due to the small size of our training dataset. Lastly, we used model-predicted and field-verified predation events to quantify acceleration characteristics of puma attacks on large prey. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate that accelerometers are useful tools for classifying the behaviors of cryptic medium and large-sized terrestrial mammals in their natural habitats and can help scientists gain deeper insight into their fine-scale behavioral patterns. We also show how accelerometer measurements can provide novel insights on the energetics and predation behavior of wild animals. Lastly we discuss the conservation implications of identifying these behavioral patterns in free-ranging species as natural and anthropogenic landscape features influence animal energy allocation and habitat use. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40462-015-0030-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2015-01-22 /pmc/articles/PMC4337468/ /pubmed/25709837 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-015-0030-0 Text en © Wang et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
spellingShingle | Research Wang, Yiwei Nickel, Barry Rutishauser, Matthew Bryce, Caleb M Williams, Terrie M Elkaim, Gabriel Wilmers, Christopher C Movement, resting, and attack behaviors of wild pumas are revealed by tri-axial accelerometer measurements |
title | Movement, resting, and attack behaviors of wild pumas are revealed by tri-axial accelerometer measurements |
title_full | Movement, resting, and attack behaviors of wild pumas are revealed by tri-axial accelerometer measurements |
title_fullStr | Movement, resting, and attack behaviors of wild pumas are revealed by tri-axial accelerometer measurements |
title_full_unstemmed | Movement, resting, and attack behaviors of wild pumas are revealed by tri-axial accelerometer measurements |
title_short | Movement, resting, and attack behaviors of wild pumas are revealed by tri-axial accelerometer measurements |
title_sort | movement, resting, and attack behaviors of wild pumas are revealed by tri-axial accelerometer measurements |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4337468/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25709837 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-015-0030-0 |
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