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

加州戴维斯大学获得了一笔赠款，用于为自动动物跟踪系统建立一个软件/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。目前没有其他系统能够同时跟踪多个小动物，无论是白天还是黑夜，提供精细的空间数据。这些能力将使研究人员能够研究物种内个体之间的相互作用和集体行为，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。 它还将允许检查不同营养级物种之间的相互作用-例如捕食者与被捕食者之间的相互作用。该系统增加了监测心率和温度等生理信号的功能，将能够量化捕食者、天气、地理和植被对运动模式和呼吸率等生理反应的影响。对激素水平进行实验操作以测试对运动和生理的影响的潜力将提供额外的新应用。传统上，用于动物跟踪的硬件和软件是为单个项目开发的。这笔赠款的产品将使实地设施能够为研究人员提供大部分这种基础设施，使其能够适应更大和更多样化的研究活动。这项技术一旦完善，就有可能以合理的费用转让给其他外地地点。软件界面将提供一个仪表板控制面板，将很容易导航的生物学家，将不需要一个程序员？的知识来使用。将开发不同的模块，用于不同的物理部位特征，以及一套不同的生理输出。未来的用户将有能力更换个别模块，以满足自己的项目需求。该系统通过网站、与当地科学博物馆的伙伴关系以及作为安装地点环境虚拟博物馆的发展基石，具有很好的公共宣传和互动学习潜力。移动数据将在近？真实的时间？允许学生和公众？手表？电脑上的动物当该系统完全投入使用时，来自新墨西哥州州立大学（一所为少数民族服务的机构）的学生每年将与合作者卡伦·马布里博士一起在鹌鹑岭遗址度过一周时间，为动物安装小型发射机。学生们将在访问期间使用和学习跟踪系统，然后在返回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，请访问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.