Identification of Imperial Cormorant, Phalacrocorax atriceps, behaviour using accelerometers

GÓMEZ LAICH, A.; WILSON, R. P.; QUINTANA, F.; SHEPARD, E.

Endangered Species Research

Inter-Research

Año: 2008 vol. 10 p. 29 - 37

1613-4796

<!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:ES-TRAD;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> Animal behaviour is largely defined in terms of movement or lack of it, so precise quantificationof animal movement is a potentially powerful way of identifying several animal behaviours.Animal-attached tags that record acceleration lend themselves particularly to this. In this work weshow how tri-axial acceleration can be used to identify some of the behaviours of imperial cormorantsPhalacrocorax atriceps. Based on the assessment of tri-axial acceleration signals, the followingbehaviours were identified in free-living birds: standing, sitting, floating on water, flying, walkingand diving. During diving, the descent, bottom and ascent phases could be distinguished. We consideredthe factors which coded for the different behaviours and this allowed us to design a key that willallow researchers assessing tri-axial accelerometry data to identify some of the behaviours thatimperial cormorants perform.