In the belly of the beast: resolving stomach tag data to link temperature, acceleration and feeding in white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias)

Jorgensen, S.J., Gleiss, A.C., Kanive, P.E., Chapple, T.K., Anderson, S.D., Ezcurra, J.M., Brandt, W.T. and Block, B.A. (2015) In the belly of the beast: resolving stomach tag data to link temperature, acceleration and feeding in white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias). Animal Biotelemetry, 3 (1).

Abstract

Motion detecting archival data loggers such as accelerometers have become increasingly important in animal biotelemetry and offer unique insights into animal behavior, energetics, and kinematics. However, challenges remain for successful deployment and interpretation of data from captive and wild animals. Accelerometer sensors require being packaged in an archival tag that has a firm attachment in a fixed (known) orientation to accurately measure the relevant motion of the animal. This requirement can lead to handling stress and attachment techniques that can affect the tagged animal’s natural behavior and welfare, and lead to behavioral artifacts in the data. Accelerometer data also require careful interpretation to correctly identify behavioral events of interest such as foraging. For endothermic species, changes in stomach temperature can produce temperature signatures indicative of foraging events. In this paper, we present a novel method for recording foraging events in free-swimming white sharks.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publisher:	BioMed Central
Copyright:	© Jorgensen et al. 2015
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/32497

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