Effects of global positioning system collar weight on zebra behavior and location error
Effects of global positioning system collar weight on zebra behavior and location error
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DOI：
10.2193/2007-061
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发表时间：
2008-02-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Harris, S.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Brooks, C.;Bonyongo, C.;Harris, S.
全球定位系统（GPS）项圈越来越多地用于研究动物行为的精细模式。以前对GPS项圈的研究试图确定定位误差的原因，而没有试图调查定位的准确性是否提供了对动物自然行为的相应准确测量。当比较2种类型的GPS衣领，我们发现了显着的影响衣领的重量和适合平原斑马（马burchelli antiquorum）女性的旅行率在Makgadikgadi，博茨瓦纳。尽管这两种类型的项圈都在可接受的项圈重量标准范围内，但与占总体重[TBM] 0.4%的项圈相比，稍微重一点的项圈（占总体重[TBM]的0.6%）在觅食时将旅行速度降低了>50%。衣领效应是特定的活动，特别是干扰放牧行为的效果是不太明显，当斑马穿过较大的斑块间距离。我们强调，衣领重量或适合的微小差异可能会影响特定的行为，限制了精细尺度的GPS数据的外推。这对野生动物生物学家具有重要意义，他们迄今为止一直认为，在可接受的重量排放范围内，项圈对动物运动参数的影响很小或没有影响。
Global Positioning System (GPS) collars are increasingly being used to study fine-scale patterns of animal behavior. Previous studies on GPS collars have tried to determine the causes of location error without attempting to investigate whether the accuracy of fixes provides a correspondingly accurate measure of the animal's natural behavior. When comparing 2 types of GPS collar, we found a significant effect of collar weight and fit on the rate of travel of plains zebra (Equus burchelli antiquorum) females in the Makgadikgadi, Botswana. Although both types of collar were well within accepted norms of collar weight, the slightly heavier collars (0.6% of total body mass [TBM]) reduced rate of travel by >50% when foraging compared with the collar that was 0.4% of TBM. Collar effect was activity specific, particularly interfering with grazing behavior; the effect was less noticeable when zebras crossed larger interpatch distances. We highlight that small differences in collar weight or fit can affect specific behaviors, limiting the extrapolation of fine-scaled GPS data. This has important implications for wildlife biologists, who hitherto have assumed that collars within accepted weight Emits have little or no effect on animal movement parameters.