Behavioural switching in a central place forager: patterns of diving behaviour in the macaroni penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) |
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Authors: | Tom Hart Richard Mann Tim Coulson Nathalie Pettorelli Phil Trathan |
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Institution: | (1) Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park, London, NW1 4RY, UK;(2) Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7PY, UK;(3) British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK;(4) Pattern Analysis and Machine Learning Research Group, Department of Engineering Science, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PJ, UK;(5) Animal Behaviour Research Group, Department of Zoology, Oxford University, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK |
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Abstract: | Recording the activity of animals as they migrate or forage has proven hugely advantageous to understanding how animals use
their environment. Where animals cannot be directly observed, the problem remains of how to identify distinct behaviours that
represent an animal’s decision-making process. An excellent example of this problem is that of foraging penguins, which travel
to sea to find prey to provision their young. Without direct sampling of the prey field, we cannot calibrate patterns of movement
with prey capture, and therefore we cannot determine how different activities link to decision-making. To overcome this, we
use a hidden markov model (HMM), which is a machine-learning technique that seeks to identify the underlying states of a system
from observable outputs. We apply HMM to determine classes of behaviour from repetitive dives. We take dive data from 103
breeding macaroni penguins at Bird Island, South Georgia, for which we have measures of weight gain over a trip. We identify
two classes of behaviour; those of short-shallow and long-deep dives. Using these two behaviours, we calculate the transition
probabilities between these states and analyse these data to determine what predicts variation in the transition probabilities.
We found that the stage of reproduction during a season, the sex and year of an individual influenced the probability of transition
between long-deep and short-shallow sequential dives. We also found differences in the hourly transition rates between the
four reproductive stages (incubation, broodguard, crèche and premoult) over a daily cycle. We conclude that this application
of HMMs for behavioural switching is potentially useful for other species and other types of recorded behaviour. |
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