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Gunner RM, Wilson RP, Holton MD, Bennett NC, Alagaili AN, Bertelsen MF, Mohammed OB, Wang T, Manger PR, Ismael K, Scantlebury DM. Examination of head versus body heading may help clarify the extent to which animal movement pathways are structured by environmental cues? MOVEMENT ECOLOGY 2023; 11:71. [PMID: 37891697 PMCID: PMC10612247 DOI: 10.1186/s40462-023-00432-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Accepted: 10/18/2023] [Indexed: 10/29/2023]
Abstract
Understanding the processes that determine how animals allocate time to space is a major challenge, although it is acknowledged that summed animal movement pathways over time must define space-time use. The critical question is then, what processes structure these pathways? Following the idea that turns within pathways might be based on environmentally determined decisions, we equipped Arabian oryx with head- and body-mounted tags to determine how they orientated their heads - which we posit is indicative of them assessing the environment - in relation to their movement paths, to investigate the role of environment scanning in path tortuosity. After simulating predators to verify that oryx look directly at objects of interest, we recorded that, during routine movement, > 60% of all turns in the animals' paths, before being executed, were preceded by a change in head heading that was not immediately mirrored by the body heading: The path turn angle (as indicated by the body heading) correlated with a prior change in head heading (with head heading being mirrored by subsequent turns in the path) twenty-one times more than when path turns occurred due to the animals adopting a body heading that went in the opposite direction to the change in head heading. Although we could not determine what the objects of interest were, and therefore the proposed reasons for turning, we suggest that this reflects the use of cephalic senses to detect advantageous environmental features (e.g. food) or to detect detrimental features (e.g. predators). The results of our pilot study suggest how turns might emerge in animal pathways and we propose that examination of points of inflection in highly resolved animal paths could represent decisions in landscapes and their examination could enhance our understanding of how animal pathways are structured.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard M Gunner
- Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78467, Konstanz, Germany.
- Department of Biosciences, College of Science, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, Wales.
| | - Rory P Wilson
- Department of Biosciences, College of Science, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, Wales.
| | - Mark D Holton
- Department of Biosciences, College of Science, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, Wales
| | - Nigel C Bennett
- Mammal Research Institute, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa
| | - Abdulaziz N Alagaili
- Zoology Department, King Saud University, P. O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia
| | - Mads F Bertelsen
- Copenhagen Zoo, Centre for Zoo and Wild Animal Health, Frederiksberg, Denmark
| | - Osama B Mohammed
- KSU Mammals Research Chair, Zoology Department, King Saud University, P.O Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia
| | - Tobias Wang
- Zoophysiology, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Paul R Manger
- School of Anatomical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Khairi Ismael
- Prince Saud Al-Faisal Wildlife Research Center, National Center for Wildlife, Taif, Saudi Arabia
| | - D Michael Scantlebury
- School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, 19 Chlorine Gardens, Belfast, BT9 5DL, UK.
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Wilson RP, Williams HJ, Holton MD, di Virgilio A, Börger L, Potts JR, Gunner R, Arkwright A, Fahlman A, Bennett NC, Alagaili A, Cole NC, Duarte CM, Scantlebury DM. An "orientation sphere" visualization for examining animal head movements. Ecol Evol 2020; 10:4291-4302. [PMID: 32489597 PMCID: PMC7246194 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.6197] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2019] [Revised: 02/06/2020] [Accepted: 02/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Animal behavior is elicited, in part, in response to external conditions, but understanding how animals perceive the environment and make the decisions that bring about these behavioral responses is challenging.Animal heads often move during specific behaviors and, additionally, typically have sensory systems (notably vision, smell, and hearing) sampling in defined arcs (normally to the front of their heads). As such, head-mounted electronic sensors consisting of accelerometers and magnetometers, which can be used to determine the movement and directionality of animal heads (where head "movement" is defined here as changes in heading [azimuth] and/or pitch [elevation angle]), can potentially provide information both on behaviors in general and also clarify which parts of the environment the animals might be prioritizing ("environmental framing").We propose a new approach to visualize the data of such head-mounted tags that combines the instantaneous outputs of head heading and pitch in a single intuitive spherical plot. This sphere has magnetic heading denoted by "longitude" position and head pitch by "latitude" on this "orientation sphere" (O-sphere).We construct the O-sphere for the head rotations of a number of vertebrates with contrasting body shape and ecology (oryx, sheep, tortoises, and turtles), illustrating various behaviors, including foraging, walking, and environmental scanning. We also propose correcting head orientations for body orientations to highlight specific heading-independent head rotation, and propose the derivation of O-sphere-metrics, such as angular speed across the sphere. This should help identify the functions of various head behaviors.Visualizations of the O-sphere provide an intuitive representation of animal behavior manifest via head orientation and rotation. This has ramifications for quantifying and understanding behaviors ranging from navigation through vigilance to feeding and, when used in tandem with body movement, should provide an important link between perception of the environment and response to it in free-ranging animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rory P. Wilson
- Department of BiosciencesCollege of ScienceSwansea UniversitySwanseaUK
| | | | - Mark D. Holton
- Department of Computing ScienceCollege of ScienceSwansea UniversitySwanseaUK
| | - Agustina di Virgilio
- Grupo de Biología de la ConservaciónLaboratorio EcotonoINIBIOMA (CONICET‐Universidad Nacional del Comahue)BarilocheArgentina
- Grupo de Ecología CuantitativaINIBIOMA (CONICET‐Universidad Nacional del Comahue)BarilocheArgentina
| | - Luca Börger
- Department of BiosciencesCollege of ScienceSwansea UniversitySwanseaUK
| | - Jonathan R. Potts
- School of Mathematics and StatisticsUniversity of SheffieldSheffieldUK
| | - Richard Gunner
- Department of BiosciencesCollege of ScienceSwansea UniversitySwanseaUK
| | - Alex Arkwright
- Department of BiosciencesCollege of ScienceSwansea UniversitySwanseaUK
- Fundación Oceanogràfic de la Comunitat ValencianaValenciaSpain
| | - Andreas Fahlman
- Fundación Oceanogràfic de la Comunitat ValencianaValenciaSpain
| | - Nigel C. Bennett
- Department of Zoology and EntomologyMammal Research InstituteUniversity of PretoriaPretoriaSouth Africa
| | | | - Nik C. Cole
- Mauritian Wildlife FoundationVacoasMauritius
- Durrell Wildlife Conservation TrustJerseyChannel Islands
| | - Carlos M. Duarte
- Red Sea Research CentreKing Abdullah University of Science and TechnologyThuwalSaudi Arabia
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