ANIMAL BEHAVIOR AND POPULATION

-an application of remote sensing, GIS and GPS

Submitted to :- Submitted by :-
Dr. Sonal Jain Tanisha
REMOTE SENSING

Remote sensing is defined as the science and art of obtaining

information about an object, area or phenomenon through the analyses
of data acquired by the sensor that is not in direct contact with the
target of investigation.
ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

 Animal behavior includes all the ways animals interact with other organisms and the physical
environment.
 Behavior can also be defined as a change in the activity of an organism in response to
a stimulus, an external or internal cue or combo of cues.
 Some behaviors are innate, or genetically hardwired, while others are learned, or developed
through experience. In many cases, behaviors have both an innate component and a learned
component.
 The study of animal behavior is termed as Ethology.

 Behavior is shaped by natural selection. Many behaviors directly increase an organism's fitness,
that is, they help it survive and reproduce.
Merits Of Adopting Remote Sensing , GIS And GPS
Techniques In Studying Animal Behavior
 It helps in recording animal movement concurrently with landscape conditions.
 In easy census of animals.
 For conserving Biodiversity.
 Assists in checking and maintain health of the animals with the help of Infrared thermography.
 To study patterns and processes occurring in a geographic space or landscape that influence characteristics of plant
and animal populations such as densities, distributions and movements.
 Helps in understanding animal dispersal and migration patterns and population dynamics.
 Due to small tag size small animals can be tracked easily.
 Data on spatial behavior can greatly assist in determining which habitats to preserve and how different
species and life stages cope with environmental change and teaching us about the mechanisms used for
dealing with these changes.
 Monitors the behavior of individual animals with minimal observer interference.
 Helps specially in the study of nocturnal spices.
 Continuous monitoring and storage of data.
 METHODS USED TO STUDY ANIMAL
BEHAVIOR

TELEMETRY INFRARED BIO-LOGGING WIRELESS

THERMOGRAP SENSOR
HY NETWORK
 Radio tracking or Radio telemetry

Radio telemetry uses radio signals, which are made up of invisible and
silent electromagnetic waves, to determine location. A radio telemetry
system is made up of three parts: a radio transmitter, a radio antenna
TELEMETRY  and a radio receiver. The radio transmitter is worn by the animal and is
the part that transmits, or sends, the radio signal.
The word telemetry is
derived from the Greek There are basically four types of radio tracking:
words tele, "remote", and
metron, "measure". 1. VHF radio tracking

Telemetry is the automatic 2. GPS tracking

measurement and wireless
transmission of data from 3. Satellite tracking
remote sources.
4. GPS and Satellite tracking
1. VHF (Very High Frequency) radio tracking
This is the traditional (conventional) telemetry method that has
been in use since the mid-1960s. This method typically requires
a user to acquire the VHF transmissions from a VHF transmitter
(usually in a collar attached to the animal) via a hand-held
antenna.

2. GPS radio tracking

GPS tracking telemetry typically involves attaching a GPS
receiver (collar) to an animal to record (track) the animal's Figure: A person holding hand-held
location over time. The GPS collar/receiver logs (stores) the antenna for VHF radio tracking
location (and time) data on the device until it is retrieved either
by: (1) recapturing the animal to extract GPS data stored on the
collar, (2) remotely (i.e., wirelessly) downloading the GPS data
stored on the collar to a separate, portable (usually handheld)
receiver1; or (3) through the satellite link.

Source: Wollman and Marby,

3. Satellite tracking system
 This method has been available since the mid-1980s. Most
current satellites receive ultra-high frequency signals from
platform transmitter terminals (PTTs).
 Satellite telemetry uses Platform Transmitter Terminals (PTTs)
that are either attached externally (Wilson et al. 2002) or
surgically implanted (Hatch et al. 2000). . PTTs transmit a signal
at a specific ultra high frequency (UHF) (401.650 MHz). The
PTTs then communicate via radio-signals to orbiting satellites, Figure: Grey seal (Phoca vitulina) on Helgoland,
Germany, with a satellite telemetry sender
which localize the signal and give positional fixes (latitude and attached.
longitude) on the PTT, and thus, the animal (Wilson et al. 2002). Source- www. photo-natur.de and Andreas Trepte

 Earlier, Argos satellites (polar- orbiting) were used which is

operated under an agreement between the French Government
(French Space Agency) and the United States (NOAA and NASA)
exclusively for the collection and distribution of environmental
and natural resource data (Argos 2008).
 PTTs are often deployed on marine and migrating animals.
When aquatic animals are deep in the ocean, the satellites
cannot receive the UHF signal. Therefore, PTTs for aquatic
animals are often equipped with a device that activates them
only when the animal surfaces, thus preserving battery power. Figure: A satellite-tagged Franciscana dolphin
Source: Wollman and Marby,
4. GPS and Satellite tracking

• In this type of tracking, GPS (Global Positioning System) device receives

signals from a satellite, in fact from at least three satellites simultaneously.

For each satellite, the position in space, the time the signal is sent, and the

speed of the signal are all known, allowing GPS devices to calculate their

position based on the signals they receive.

• The data from the GPS is transmitted to the satellite.

• The satellites then downloads data from GPS which can be used thereafter.

Source: Wollman and Marby,

 SOME OTHER DEVICES RFID and PIT tags
 Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are some of the
smallest tags that encode information electronically (e.g.,
tag ID) and transmit it via radio waves.
 RFIDs utilize a wide range of frequencies (LF: 30–300 kHz; HF:
3–30 MHz; UHF: 300 MHz–3 GHz).
 RFIDs exist in active and passive forms. Active tags contain
a battery that allows a constant transmission of the
information on board the RFID. Passive tags do not contain a
battery and the information on them is transmitted only when
in proximity to a reader.
 Passive Interrogated Transponders (PIT) tags are glass
encapsulated passive RFID tags that often utilize the low
Figure: A paper wasp tagged with a passive frequency range and can be as small as 8 mm (read range of
RFID. The tag shown is an insert of a PIT 20 cm).
tag without glass encapsulation

Source: Wollman and Marby,

  This system can detect thermal contrast of less then 0.3°C

 Thermographic methods are also applied to investigate energy

expenditure in various types of animal behavior such as during singing
INFRARED in birds.

THERMOGRAPHY  IRT is a useful tool in studies of livestock (without compromising their

welfare), wild animals (detection of animal habitats, estimation of the
A thermal-IR system uses a population size), and zoo animals (Lavers et al. 2005).
detector, a thermal imager,  Thermal imaging cameras are widely used to observe and detect wild
and a real-time image
animals and their habitats, and to estimate their population size.
recording device.
Temperature distributions do not have to be measured accurately, and
Thermal imaging cameras are animals appear as warm spots against a dark, cool background in the
used to determine changes in thermogram, which is sufficient to confirm their presence
the body temperature of
animals exposed to various
stressors during different
types of behavior or
physiological responses.
  In logging the information is recorded and
stored in an animal-borne device (archival
logger) and information is downloaded when,
and if, the logger is retrieved (Boyd et al.
2004).
BIOLOGGING

Biologging refers to the

deployment of autonomous
recording tags on free-
living animals, so that
multiple variables can be
monitored at rates of many
times per second, thereby
generating millions of data
points over a wide range of
time periods.
  A WSN consist of many sensors (usually infrared sensors) nodes
WIRELESS SENSOR deployed in the wildlife activity area or nearby area and a sink node.
NETWORK (WSN )OR  Usually the sensor remain in the dormant state . As soon as the animal
WIRELESS IMAGE enters in the detection zone the sensor starts capturing images and
information. Meanwhile the GPS positioning modules start automatically
SENSOR NETWORK
for obtaining positioning data of the target.
(WISN)
 The sensor nodes process data locally and transfer it to the sink node

A WSN is a low cost from where it sends data to the base station.
technology which permits  Base stations are connected with the internet and they transmit data to
communication over a the wildlife monitoring centers via internet. Wildlife monitoring center is
large area with the network equipped with GIS system and a wild animal image information
of simple devices. database from where the data can be accessed y the researchers.
It is self-organized, data
centric, application
specific, small, low cost
and wide area
monitoring system which
utilizes sensors, embedded
systems and wireless
communication technology.
Source- Zang et al. 2014 Figure: schematic diagram of components of wireless sensor system