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BEEtag: A Low-Cost, Image-Based Tracking System for the Study of Animal Behavior and Locomotion

A fundamental challenge common to studies of animal movement, behavior, and ecology is the collection of high-quality datasets on spatial positions of animals as they change through space and time. Recent innovations in tracking technology have allowed researchers to collect large and highly accurat...

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Autores principales: Crall, James D., Gravish, Nick, Mountcastle, Andrew M., Combes, Stacey A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4558030/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26332211
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136487
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author Crall, James D.
Gravish, Nick
Mountcastle, Andrew M.
Combes, Stacey A.
author_facet Crall, James D.
Gravish, Nick
Mountcastle, Andrew M.
Combes, Stacey A.
author_sort Crall, James D.
collection PubMed
description A fundamental challenge common to studies of animal movement, behavior, and ecology is the collection of high-quality datasets on spatial positions of animals as they change through space and time. Recent innovations in tracking technology have allowed researchers to collect large and highly accurate datasets on animal spatiotemporal position while vastly decreasing the time and cost of collecting such data. One technique that is of particular relevance to the study of behavioral ecology involves tracking visual tags that can be uniquely identified in separate images or movie frames. These tags can be located within images that are visually complex, making them particularly well suited for longitudinal studies of animal behavior and movement in naturalistic environments. While several software packages have been developed that use computer vision to identify visual tags, these software packages are either (a) not optimized for identification of single tags, which is generally of the most interest for biologists, or (b) suffer from licensing issues, and therefore their use in the study of animal behavior has been limited. Here, we present BEEtag, an open-source, image-based tracking system in Matlab that allows for unique identification of individual animals or anatomical markers. The primary advantages of this system are that it (a) independently identifies animals or marked points in each frame of a video, limiting error propagation, (b) performs well in images with complex backgrounds, and (c) is low-cost. To validate the use of this tracking system in animal behavior, we mark and track individual bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) and recover individual patterns of space use and activity within the nest. Finally, we discuss the advantages and limitations of this software package and its application to the study of animal movement, behavior, and ecology.
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spelling pubmed-45580302015-09-10 BEEtag: A Low-Cost, Image-Based Tracking System for the Study of Animal Behavior and Locomotion Crall, James D. Gravish, Nick Mountcastle, Andrew M. Combes, Stacey A. PLoS One Research Article A fundamental challenge common to studies of animal movement, behavior, and ecology is the collection of high-quality datasets on spatial positions of animals as they change through space and time. Recent innovations in tracking technology have allowed researchers to collect large and highly accurate datasets on animal spatiotemporal position while vastly decreasing the time and cost of collecting such data. One technique that is of particular relevance to the study of behavioral ecology involves tracking visual tags that can be uniquely identified in separate images or movie frames. These tags can be located within images that are visually complex, making them particularly well suited for longitudinal studies of animal behavior and movement in naturalistic environments. While several software packages have been developed that use computer vision to identify visual tags, these software packages are either (a) not optimized for identification of single tags, which is generally of the most interest for biologists, or (b) suffer from licensing issues, and therefore their use in the study of animal behavior has been limited. Here, we present BEEtag, an open-source, image-based tracking system in Matlab that allows for unique identification of individual animals or anatomical markers. The primary advantages of this system are that it (a) independently identifies animals or marked points in each frame of a video, limiting error propagation, (b) performs well in images with complex backgrounds, and (c) is low-cost. To validate the use of this tracking system in animal behavior, we mark and track individual bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) and recover individual patterns of space use and activity within the nest. Finally, we discuss the advantages and limitations of this software package and its application to the study of animal movement, behavior, and ecology. Public Library of Science 2015-09-02 /pmc/articles/PMC4558030/ /pubmed/26332211 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136487 Text en © 2015 Crall et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Crall, James D.
Gravish, Nick
Mountcastle, Andrew M.
Combes, Stacey A.
BEEtag: A Low-Cost, Image-Based Tracking System for the Study of Animal Behavior and Locomotion
title BEEtag: A Low-Cost, Image-Based Tracking System for the Study of Animal Behavior and Locomotion
title_full BEEtag: A Low-Cost, Image-Based Tracking System for the Study of Animal Behavior and Locomotion
title_fullStr BEEtag: A Low-Cost, Image-Based Tracking System for the Study of Animal Behavior and Locomotion
title_full_unstemmed BEEtag: A Low-Cost, Image-Based Tracking System for the Study of Animal Behavior and Locomotion
title_short BEEtag: A Low-Cost, Image-Based Tracking System for the Study of Animal Behavior and Locomotion
title_sort beetag: a low-cost, image-based tracking system for the study of animal behavior and locomotion
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4558030/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26332211
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136487
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