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Using accelerometers to develop time-energy budgets of wild fur seals from captive surrogates
Monique A Ladds1,2, Marcus Salton2, David P Hocking3
1School of Mathematics and Statistics, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
Peerj
|November 3, 2018
Summary
Juvenile Australian fur seals expend energy similarly to adults, using behavioral adjustments to maintain energy budgets. Low-resolution accelerometry effectively tracks their activity, reducing the need for tag recovery.
Area of Science:
- Marine Mammal Ecology
- Bio-logging and Animal Movement
- Energetics and Behavioral Ecology
Background:
- Accurate time-energy budgets are crucial for understanding animal responses to environmental changes.
- Bio-loggers like accelerometers offer a method for monitoring energy expenditure in marine mammals during foraging trips.
- Low-resolution data recording can facilitate data transmission, minimizing the need for device retrieval.
Purpose of the Study:
- To derive time-energy budgets for juvenile Australian fur seals using accelerometry.
- To assess the effectiveness of low-resolution accelerometry for behavior classification and data transmission.
- To investigate energy expenditure patterns and behavioral compensation strategies in juvenile fur seals.
Main Methods:
- Trained machine learning models using captive fur seals and sea lions with high (20 Hz) and low (1 Hz) resolution accelerometers to classify four behaviors: foraging, grooming, traveling, and resting.
- Estimated the energetic cost of each behavior based on location, season, and digestive state.
- Applied the developed models to accelerometry data from wild juvenile Australian fur seals to reconstruct their time-energy budgets.
Main Results:
- Low-resolution (1 Hz) accelerometry achieved high accuracy (up to 90%) in classifying captive seal behaviors, enabling the construction of time-energy budgets for wild seals.
- Juvenile fur seals exhibited energy expenditure levels comparable to adult counterparts of similar species.
- No significant differences in daily energy expenditure were found across sex or season, though seals rested more during periods of expected higher energy expenditure.
Conclusions:
- Low-resolution accelerometry is a viable method for behavior classification, potentially allowing for lower data transmission rates and reduced tag recovery needs.
- Juvenile fur seals maintain energy expenditure similar to adults, employing behavioral strategies to conserve energy during high-output activities.
- This study highlights the utility of pairing energy expenditure estimates with behavioral data to understand energy use and compensatory mechanisms in fur seals.
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