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

University Of California-Davis, Davis CA

Investigators

Abstract

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.