Identification of animal movement patterns using tri-axial magnetometry

Williams, Hannah J; Holton, Mark D; Shepard, Emily L C; Largey, Nicola; Norman, Brad; Ryan, Peter G; Duriez, Olivier; Scantlebury, Michael; Quintana, Flavio; Magowan, Elizabeth A; Marks, Nikki J; Alagaili, Abdulaziz N; Bennett, Nigel C; Wilson, Rory P

Identification of animal movement patterns using tri-axial magnetometry

Journal Article

2017

Journal Title

Movement Ecology

Link to Journal

https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-017-0097-x

Department

FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology

Faculty

Faculty of Science

Abstract

Accelerometers are powerful sensors in many bio-logging devices, and are increasingly allowing researchers to investigate the performance, behaviour, energy expenditure and even state, of free-living animals. Another sensor commonly used in animal-attached loggers is the magnetometer, which has been primarily used in dead-reckoning or inertial measurement tags, but little outside that. We examine the potential of magnetometers for helping elucidate the behaviour of animals in a manner analogous to, but very different from, accelerometers. The particular responses of magnetometers to movement means that there are instances when they can resolve behaviours that are not easily perceived using accelerometers.