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Can Ethograms Be Automatically Generated Using Body Acceleration Data from Free-Ranging Birds?

Author

Listed:
  • Kentaro Q Sakamoto
  • Katsufumi Sato
  • Mayumi Ishizuka
  • Yutaka Watanuki
  • Akinori Takahashi
  • Francis Daunt
  • Sarah Wanless

Abstract

An ethogram is a catalogue of discrete behaviors typically employed by a species. Traditionally animal behavior has been recorded by observing study individuals directly. However, this approach is difficult, often impossible, in the case of behaviors which occur in remote areas and/or at great depth or altitude. The recent development of increasingly sophisticated, animal-borne data loggers, has started to overcome this problem. Accelerometers are particularly useful in this respect because they can record the dynamic motion of a body in e.g. flight, walking, or swimming. However, classifying behavior using body acceleration characteristics typically requires prior knowledge of the behavior of free-ranging animals. Here, we demonstrate an automated procedure to categorize behavior from body acceleration, together with the release of a user-friendly computer application, “Ethographer”. We evaluated its performance using longitudinal acceleration data collected from a foot-propelled diving seabird, the European shag, Phalacrocorax aristotelis. The time series data were converted into a spectrum by continuous wavelet transformation. Then, each second of the spectrum was categorized into one of 20 behavior groups by unsupervised cluster analysis, using k-means methods. The typical behaviors extracted were characterized by the periodicities of body acceleration. Each categorized behavior was assumed to correspond to when the bird was on land, in flight, on the sea surface, diving and so on. The behaviors classified by the procedures accorded well with those independently defined from depth profiles. Because our approach is performed by unsupervised computation of the data, it has the potential to detect previously unknown types of behavior and unknown sequences of some behaviors.

Suggested Citation

  • Kentaro Q Sakamoto & Katsufumi Sato & Mayumi Ishizuka & Yutaka Watanuki & Akinori Takahashi & Francis Daunt & Sarah Wanless, 2009. "Can Ethograms Be Automatically Generated Using Body Acceleration Data from Free-Ranging Birds?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(4), pages 1-12, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0005379
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005379
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    Cited by:

    1. Maitreyi Sur & Tony Suffredini & Stephen M Wessells & Peter H Bloom & Michael Lanzone & Sheldon Blackshire & Srisarguru Sridhar & Todd Katzner, 2017. "Improved supervised classification of accelerometry data to distinguish behaviors of soaring birds," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(4), pages 1-19, April.
    2. Owen R Bidder & Hamish A Campbell & Agustina Gómez-Laich & Patricia Urgé & James Walker & Yuzhi Cai & Lianli Gao & Flavio Quintana & Rory P Wilson, 2014. "Love Thy Neighbour: Automatic Animal Behavioural Classification of Acceleration Data Using the K-Nearest Neighbour Algorithm," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(2), pages 1-7, February.
    3. Dentinger, Jane E. & Börger, Luca & Holton, Mark D. & Jafari-Marandi, Ruholla & Norman, Durham A. & Smith, Brian K. & Oppenheimer, Seth F. & Strickland, Bronson K. & Wilson, Rory P. & Street, Garrett , 2022. "A probabilistic framework for behavioral identification from animal-borne accelerometers," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 464(C).
    4. Daniel M Coffey & Mark A Royer & Carl G Meyer & Kim N Holland, 2020. "Diel patterns in swimming behavior of a vertically migrating deepwater shark, the bluntnose sixgill (Hexanchus griseus)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-25, January.

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