DOI: 10.5061/dryad.dr7sqvb6d
title: Houbara time budgets according to individual and season

description: Understanding the behaviours and time budgets of translocated animals
 post-release has the potential to improve rearing and release protocols,
 and therefore survival rate. Otididae (bustards) inhabit open landscapes
 across the Middle East and Asia, are highly mobile on the ground and have
 similar lifestyles and body plans. The Asian Houbara (Chlamydotis
 macqueenii) is a bustard of conservation concern inhabiting the middle
 East to Central Asia and is frequently reared in captivity for population
 management. We deployed tri-axial accelerometers on 20 captive Asian
 Houbaras in two seasons to catalogue basic behaviours, provide a template
 applicable to other bustard species and examine seasonal differences in
 behaviour. We created Boolean algorithms to define the following
 behaviours using raw acceleration data and derived metrics: stationary,
 locomotion and eating/drinking. We used video recordings to cross-validate
 the algorithms, yielding recalls from 95% to 97%, and precisions between
 97% and 98%. Houbaras spent significantly more time ‘stationary’ and less
 time on ‘locomotion’ in Summer (June) compared to Spring (March). Simple
 Boolean algorithms proved useful in identifying several behaviours and
 have the potential to be applicable to other bustard species, in captivity
 and in the wild post-release.
description: Tri-axial accelerometers were deployed on captive Asian Houbaras
 (n = 20 birds) in two seasons at high temporal resolution. Boolean
 algorithms were created to define the following behaviours using raw
 acceleration data and derived metrics: stationary, locomotion and
 eating/drinking. Time budgets were calculated for each individual and
 season.
description: # Title of dataset: Houbara time budgets according to individual and
 season **Name of datafile: Houbara_time_budget_data.csv** Authors involved
 with sample collection, processing and/or analysis: Kareemah Chopra, Rory
 P. Wilson, Emily L.C Shepard, Enrico Sorato, Yves Hingrat. Contact Author:
 Kareemah Chopra ORCID ID: 0009-0003-1427-3384 Institution: University of
 Essex Address: Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex CO4 3SQ, UK Email:
 [km19088@essex.ac.uk](mailto:km19088@essex.ac.uk) Data of data collection:
 March 2019 (six days) and June 2019 (six days). Geographic location of
 data collection: National Avian Research Centre (NARC), Abu Dhabi, UAE.
 Funding: Equipment and travel costs were provided by the International
 Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC). SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION Title of
 publication that uses the data: A tri-axial acceleration-based behaviour
 template for bustards: the case of the Asian houbara. METHODOLOGICAL
 INFORMATION Accelerometry data: Tri-axial accelerometers were deployed on
 captive Asian Houbaras (n = 20 birds) in two seasons at high temporal
 resolution. Data processing: Boolean algorithms were created in Daily
 Diary Multiple Trace (DDMT) provided by Wildbyte Technologies to define
 the following behaviours using raw acceleration data and derived metrics:
 stationary, locomotion and eating/drinking. Time budgets were calculated
 for each individual and season . DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION Number of
 variables: four. Number of rows: 100 (including column names). Variable
 List: Column 1. Individual ID (n = 20 birds) Column 2. Month- values
 include March 2019 (six days) and June 2019 (six days) Column 3. Behavior-
 values include: stationary, locomotion and eat/drink. Column 4. Percentage
 (%)- the number of data points detected as a given behavior divided by the
 total number of data points, multiplied by 100.