ABI Development:software and data management for an automated animal tracking system

加州大学戴维斯分校（University of California Davis）获得了一笔拨款，用于为一种自动动物跟踪系统构建软件/硬件接口，该系统可以为多达30只中小型动物提供位置和生理数据。目前还没有其他系统能够同时跟踪多只小动物，不分昼夜，提供精细的空间数据。这些能力将使研究人员能够检查个体之间的相互作用和物种内的集体行为，使他们能够使用社会网络分析来理解行为，使他们能够使用社会网络分析来获得对动物行为的新理解。它还将允许检查跨营养水平的物种之间的相互作用，例如捕食者-猎物的相互作用。该系统监测心率和体温等生理信号的附加功能将提供量化捕食者、天气、地理和植被对运动模式和呼吸速率等生理反应的影响的能力。通过实验操纵激素水平来测试对运动和生理的影响的潜力将提供一个额外的新应用。传统上，用于动物追踪的硬件和软件都是为单个项目开发的。这笔赠款的产品将使实地设施能够将大部分基础设施作为服务提供给研究人员，从而有可能容纳更大、更多样化的研究活动。这项技术一旦完善，就有可能以合理的成本转移到其他油田。软件界面将提供一个仪表盘控制面板，生物学家可以很容易地导航，不需要程序员。知识的运用。不同的模块将被开发用于不同的物理场地特征，以及一套不同的生理输出。未来的用户将能够替换单个模块以适应他们自己的项目需求。该系统通过网站、与当地科学博物馆的合作伙伴关系，在公共宣传和互动学习方面具有巨大的潜力，并可作为正在开发的安装现场虚拟环境博物馆的基石。移动数据将在近？真正的时间吗?，允许学生和公众观看。电脑上的动物。当这个系统全面投入使用后，来自新墨西哥州立大学的学生们，一个为少数民族服务的机构，每年将和合作者凯伦·马布里博士一起，在鹌鹑岭的地点呆上一个星期，给动物们安装小型发射器。学生们将在访问期间使用和学习跟踪系统，然后在他们回到新墨西哥州后继续远程收集数据。有关该项目及其产品的更多信息，请参阅http://nrs.ucdavis.edu/quail.html。

The University of California Davis is awarded a grant to build a software/hardware interface for an automated animal tracking system that can provide both locations and physiological data for up to 30 small to medium-sized animals. No other current system has the ability to track multiple small animals simultaneously, both day and night, providing fine-scale spatial data. These capacities will allow researchers to examine interactions among individuals and collective behavior within a species, enabling them to use social network analysis to understand behavior enabling them to use social network analysis to gain a new understanding of animal behavior. It will also allow the examination of interactions among species across trophic levels - for example predator-prey interactions. The added feature of the system to monitor physiological signals such as heart rate and temperature will provide the ability to quantify the effects of predators, weather, geography and vegetation on both movement patterns and physiological responses such as respiration rate. The potential for experimental manipulation of hormones levels to test the effects on movement and physiology will provide an additional novel application. Traditionally, the hardware and software for animal tracking are developed for individual projects. The products of this grant will make it possible for field facilities to offer much of this infrastructure as a service to researchers, making it possible to accommodate a larger and more diverse set of research activities. The technology has the potential, once perfected, to be transferred at a reasonable cost to other field sites. The software interface will provide a dashboard control panel that will be easily navigable by biologists and will not require a programmer?s knowledge to use. Different modules will be developed for use with different physical site characteristics, as well as a suite of different physiological outputs. Future users will have the ability to replace individual modules to suit their own project needs. The system has wonderful potential for public outreach and interactive learning through websites, partnerships with local science museums, and as a cornerstone of a developing virtual museum of the environment for the installation site. Movement data will be available in near ?real time?, allowing school children and the general public to ?watch? animals on the computer. When the system is fully operational, students from New Mexico State University, a minority-serving institution, will spend a week at the Quail Ridge site each year with collaborator Dr. Karen Mabry fitting animals with small transmitters. The students will use and learn about the tracking system during their visit, and then continue to gather data remotely once they return to New Mexico. For further information on the project and its products see http://nrs.ucdavis.edu/quail.html.