期刊
SENSORS
卷 21, 期 6, 页码 -出版社
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/s21062229
关键词
giraffe; triaxial acceleration; machine learning; random forests; behavior classification; giraffe conservation
资金
- Leibniz Open Access Publishing Fund
Averting the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services can be achieved through conservation efforts, particularly focusing on keystone species like giraffes. Monitoring animal behavior in the wild using accelerometers can aid in conservation management, with promising results in predictive accuracy for certain behaviors. These devices, in combination with GPS tracking, have the potential to greatly contribute to the conservation of giraffes.
Averting today's loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services can be achieved through conservation efforts, especially of keystone species. Giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) play an important role in sustaining Africa's ecosystems, but are 'vulnerable' according to the IUCN Red List since 2016. Monitoring an animal's behavior in the wild helps to develop and assess their conservation management. One mechanism for remote tracking of wildlife behavior is to attach accelerometers to animals to record their body movement. We tested two different commercially available high-resolution accelerometers, e-obs and Africa Wildlife Tracking (AWT), attached to the top of the heads of three captive giraffes and analyzed the accuracy of automatic behavior classifications, focused on the Random Forests algorithm. For both accelerometers, behaviors of lower variety in head and neck movements could be better predicted (i.e., feeding above eye level, mean prediction accuracy e-obs/AWT: 97.6%/99.7%; drinking: 96.7%/97.0%) than those with a higher variety of body postures (such as standing: 90.7-91.0%/75.2-76.7%; rumination: 89.6-91.6%/53.5-86.5%). Nonetheless both devices come with limitations and especially the AWT needs technological adaptations before applying it on animals in the wild. Nevertheless, looking at the prediction results, both are promising accelerometers for behavioral classification of giraffes. Therefore, these devices when applied to free-ranging animals, in combination with GPS tracking, can contribute greatly to the conservation of giraffes.
作者
我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。
推荐
暂无数据