I have conducted an MSc thesis in data-science applied on bioacoustics data, and wish to carry on some experiments on my own now, using domestic environment as a lab.
I am looking for devices to record the vocalizations, the position and the movement of the animal.
I am thinking about microphones, GIS trackers and accelerometers. The best is they are small and light enough to be carried without problems by a dog, without bothering or altering the behaviour.
Preferences:
- Should be installed on collars or be carried by the animal without affecting its behaviour
- water-proof or water-resistant (to rain or < 1m pressure would be enough)
1. Microphones
Anyone could suggest brands and types of affordable and market-available of micro-phone recorders for pets (dogs) ?
Dogs acoustic perception is affine to human audible spectrum.
Requirements:
- Recording Sampling rate 67-45,000 Hz (better if 88,000 Hz)
- Rechargeable batteries
2. GIS trackers
Which market-available sensors would you suggest, adapted for the scope?
It is ok low resolution, I don't know which is correct comprosime. Ideally 1m would be enough, but don't know about GIS sensors. Can you share some info and aspects I should take into account ?
3. Accelerometers
Ideally they should be very light so that I can install them or collar or adjust with other non-invasive scaffolding, if the sensor is sold off-the-shelf with no case.
Requirements:
- Must record 3D axes
Which recording rate would you suggest for similar projects?
Thanks for sharing tips and info !
11 September 2023 4:33pm
Hi Luigi!
You should have a look at the μMoth
developed by @alex_rogers and others from Open Acoustics Devices:
As an alternative audiologger meant to be animal borne, check out the Audiologger developed by Simon Chamaillé-Jammes @schamaille et al :
This one can also log acceleration and magnetometry! We have recently deployed it on muskoxen in Greenland.
For a GPS tracker, you may want take a look at the SnapperGPS by @JonasBchrt & @alex_rogers :
As an alternative the i-gotU GPS logger may be of interest:
i-gotU GT-120B GNSS Data Logger - Managing Large Deployments with Ease – CanadaGPS.ca
Compared to previous models (i.e. GT 120) which are GPS, GT-120B is a GNSS logger that utilizes both GPS and QZSS constellations. GT-120B has usb and wireless dual interfaces, which allows data to be downloaded either via either usb or wirelessly. Furthermore, GT-120B is Windows, Android and IOS compatible.
Regarding your question on sampling frq: We have been using 8Hz (and 10 Hz on the Audiologger Acceleration logging) for our slow moving muskoxen. For an animal like a dog, you probably want to sample at somewhat higher frq. This group used 50Hz in a study of arctic fox:
Digging into the behaviour of an active hunting predator: arctic fox prey caching events revealed by accelerometry | Movement Ecology | Full Text
Biologging now allows detailed recording of animal movement, thus informing behavioural ecology in ways unthinkable just a few years ago. In particular, combining GPS and accelerometry allows spatially explicit tracking of various behaviours, including predation events in large terrestrial mammalian predators. Specifically, identification of location clusters resulting from prey handling allows efficient location of killing events. For small predators with short prey handling times, however, identifying predation events through technology remains unresolved. We propose that a promising avenue emerges when specific foraging behaviours generate diagnostic acceleration patterns. One such example is the caching behaviour of the arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus), an active hunting predator strongly relying on food storage when living in proximity to bird colonies. We equipped 16 Arctic foxes from Bylot Island (Nunavut, Canada) with GPS and accelerometers, yielding 23 fox-summers of movement data. Accelerometers recorded tri-axial acceleration at 50 Hz while we obtained a sample of simultaneous video recordings of fox behaviour. Multiple supervised machine learning algorithms were tested to classify accelerometry data into 4 behaviours: motionless, running, walking and digging, the latter being associated with food caching. Finally, we assessed the spatio-temporal concordance of fox digging and greater snow goose (Anser caerulescens antlanticus) nesting, to test the ecological relevance of our behavioural classification in a well-known study system dominated by top-down trophic interactions. The random forest model yielded the best behavioural classification, with accuracies for each behaviour over 96%. Overall, arctic foxes spent 49% of the time motionless, 34% running, 9% walking, and 8% digging. The probability of digging increased with goose nest density and this result held during both goose egg incubation and brooding periods. Accelerometry combined with GPS allowed us to track across space and time a critical foraging behaviour from a small active hunting predator, informing on spatio-temporal distribution of predation risk in an Arctic vertebrate community. Our study opens new possibilities for assessing the foraging behaviour of terrestrial predators, a key step to disentangle the subtle mechanisms structuring many predator–prey interactions and trophic networks.
17 December 2023 3:02pm
I am not an acoustics person but train and deploy canines in the field. Are you looking for something that records sniff rate and patterns? For GPS I just use a Garmin collar system Altha 100. There is a Conservation Canine group that might be worth asking your question in.
Lars Holst Hansen
Aarhus University