Estimation of baboon daily travel distances by means of point sampling – the magnitude of underestimation
Daily travel distance (DTD), the distance an animal moves over the course of the day, is an important metric in movement ecology. It provides data with which to test hypotheses related to energetics and behaviour, e.g. impact of group size or food distribution on DTDs. The automated tracking of m...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2017-07-01
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| Series: | Primate Biology |
| Online Access: | https://www.primate-biol.net/4/143/2017/pb-4-143-2017.pdf |
| Summary: | Daily travel distance (DTD), the distance an animal moves over the
course of the day, is an important metric in movement ecology. It provides
data with which to test hypotheses related to energetics and behaviour, e.g. impact of
group size or food distribution on DTDs. The automated tracking of movements
by applying GPS technology has become widely available and easy to implement. However, due to
battery duration constraints, it is necessary to select a tracking-time
resolution, which inevitably introduces an underestimation of the true
underlying path distance. Here we give a quantification of this inherent
systematic underestimation of DTDs for a terrestrial primate, the Guinea
baboon. We show that sampling protocols with interval lengths from 1 to
120 min underestimate DTDs on average by 7 to 35 %. For longer time
intervals (i.e. 60, 90, 120 min), the relative increase of deviation from
the <q>true</q> trajectory is less pronounced than for shorter intervals. Our
study provides first hints on the magnitude of error, which can be applied as
a corrective when estimating absolute DTDs in calculations on travelling
costs in terrestrial primates. |
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| ISSN: | 2363-4707 2363-4715 |