Decision rules for determining terrestrial movement and the consequences for filtering high-resolution global positioning system tracks: a case study using the African lion (Panthera leo).
J R Soc Interface
; 19(186): 20210692, 2022 01.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35042386
ABSTRACT
The combined use of global positioning system (GPS) technology and motion sensors within the discipline of movement ecology has increased over recent years. This is particularly the case for instrumented wildlife, with many studies now opting to record parameters at high (infra-second) sampling frequencies. However, the detail with which GPS loggers can elucidate fine-scale movement depends on the precision and accuracy of fixes, with accuracy being affected by signal reception. We hypothesized that animal behaviour was the main factor affecting fix inaccuracy, with inherent GPS positional noise (jitter) being most apparent during GPS fixes for non-moving locations, thereby producing disproportionate error during rest periods. A movement-verified filtering (MVF) protocol was constructed to compare GPS-derived speed data with dynamic body acceleration, to provide a computationally quick method for identifying genuine travelling movement. This method was tested on 11 free-ranging lions (Panthera leo) fitted with collar-mounted GPS units and tri-axial motion sensors recording at 1 and 40 Hz, respectively. The findings support the hypothesis and show that distance moved estimates were, on average, overestimated by greater than 80% prior to GPS screening. We present the conceptual and mathematical protocols for screening fix inaccuracy within high-resolution GPS datasets and demonstrate the importance that MVF has for avoiding inaccurate and biased estimates of movement.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Geographic Information Systems
/
Lions
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
J R Soc Interface
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United kingdom