AMoveE 2014: John Fryxell
Channel: Movebank
Date: 2014-05-20

This talk was presented by John Fryxell on 7 May 2014 as part of the Symposium on Animal Movement and the Environment, held at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh.

Fryxell J, Mosser A, Avgar T, Thompson I, Brown G, Shuter J, Rodgers A, 2014, "Accelerometry, behavior, and movement ecology of free-ranging woodland caribou"

Abstract: Energetic balance is thought to be a key determinant of demographic rates, yet estimating energetic costs in free-ranging animals presents significant challenges. Animal-borne activity monitors (using accelerometer technology) combined with behavioral assessment (using on-board video cameras) present a promising method for meeting this challenge. We monitored accelerometry, behavior, and movement on 34 free-ranging caribou in northern Ontario as well as corroborating these relationships on captive animals. Accelerometry was capable of predicting with reasonably high precision coarse categories of behavior (lying down, feeding, standing, running) that differ in energetic costs. Both captive and free-ranging studies revealed positive relationships between activity level based on accelerometry and energy expenditure. Activity patterns based on accelerometry scores were then measured over thirteen months for 131 free-ranging woodland caribou (R. t. caribou) spanning 450,000 km2 in northern Ontario. Individual displacement was strongly related to integrated accelerometer scores. After accounting for displacement, activity was significantly influenced by vegetation abundance (presumably due to foraging), snow depth (presumably associated with digging for winter forage), and temperature (suggestive of behavioural thermoregulation by caribou).