Digging into the behaviour of an active hunting predator: arctic fox prey caching events revealed by accelerometry

Abstract Background Biologging now allows detailed recording of animal movement, thus informing behavioural ecology in ways unthinkable just a few years ago. In particular, combining GPS and accelerometry allows spatially explicit tracking of various behaviours, including predation events in large t...

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Autores principales:	Jeanne Clermont, Sasha Woodward-Gagné, Dominique Berteaux
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	BMC 2021
Materias:	Acquisition rate Activity budget Behavioural classification Biologging Food caching Hoarding Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e1c26f9452cc42419f148e58dd47dddf
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e1c26f9452cc42419f148e58dd47dddf2021-11-28T12:22:27ZDigging into the behaviour of an active hunting predator: arctic fox prey caching events revealed by accelerometry10.1186/s40462-021-00295-12051-3933https://doaj.org/article/e1c26f9452cc42419f148e58dd47dddf2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-021-00295-1https://doaj.org/toc/2051-3933Abstract Background Biologging now allows detailed recording of animal movement, thus informing behavioural ecology in ways unthinkable just a few years ago. In particular, combining GPS and accelerometry allows spatially explicit tracking of various behaviours, including predation events in large terrestrial mammalian predators. Specifically, identification of location clusters resulting from prey handling allows efficient location of killing events. For small predators with short prey handling times, however, identifying predation events through technology remains unresolved. We propose that a promising avenue emerges when specific foraging behaviours generate diagnostic acceleration patterns. One such example is the caching behaviour of the arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus), an active hunting predator strongly relying on food storage when living in proximity to bird colonies. Methods We equipped 16 Arctic foxes from Bylot Island (Nunavut, Canada) with GPS and accelerometers, yielding 23 fox-summers of movement data. Accelerometers recorded tri-axial acceleration at 50 Hz while we obtained a sample of simultaneous video recordings of fox behaviour. Multiple supervised machine learning algorithms were tested to classify accelerometry data into 4 behaviours: motionless, running, walking and digging, the latter being associated with food caching. Finally, we assessed the spatio-temporal concordance of fox digging and greater snow goose (Anser caerulescens antlanticus) nesting, to test the ecological relevance of our behavioural classification in a well-known study system dominated by top-down trophic interactions. Results The random forest model yielded the best behavioural classification, with accuracies for each behaviour over 96%. Overall, arctic foxes spent 49% of the time motionless, 34% running, 9% walking, and 8% digging. The probability of digging increased with goose nest density and this result held during both goose egg incubation and brooding periods. Conclusions Accelerometry combined with GPS allowed us to track across space and time a critical foraging behaviour from a small active hunting predator, informing on spatio-temporal distribution of predation risk in an Arctic vertebrate community. Our study opens new possibilities for assessing the foraging behaviour of terrestrial predators, a key step to disentangle the subtle mechanisms structuring many predator–prey interactions and trophic networks.Jeanne ClermontSasha Woodward-GagnéDominique BerteauxBMCarticleAcquisition rateActivity budgetBehavioural classificationBiologgingFood cachingHoardingBiology (General)QH301-705.5ENMovement Ecology, Vol 9, Iss 1, Pp 1-12 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Acquisition rate Activity budget Behavioural classification Biologging Food caching Hoarding Biology (General) QH301-705.5
spellingShingle	Acquisition rate Activity budget Behavioural classification Biologging Food caching Hoarding Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Jeanne Clermont Sasha Woodward-Gagné Dominique Berteaux Digging into the behaviour of an active hunting predator: arctic fox prey caching events revealed by accelerometry
description	Abstract Background Biologging now allows detailed recording of animal movement, thus informing behavioural ecology in ways unthinkable just a few years ago. In particular, combining GPS and accelerometry allows spatially explicit tracking of various behaviours, including predation events in large terrestrial mammalian predators. Specifically, identification of location clusters resulting from prey handling allows efficient location of killing events. For small predators with short prey handling times, however, identifying predation events through technology remains unresolved. We propose that a promising avenue emerges when specific foraging behaviours generate diagnostic acceleration patterns. One such example is the caching behaviour of the arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus), an active hunting predator strongly relying on food storage when living in proximity to bird colonies. Methods We equipped 16 Arctic foxes from Bylot Island (Nunavut, Canada) with GPS and accelerometers, yielding 23 fox-summers of movement data. Accelerometers recorded tri-axial acceleration at 50 Hz while we obtained a sample of simultaneous video recordings of fox behaviour. Multiple supervised machine learning algorithms were tested to classify accelerometry data into 4 behaviours: motionless, running, walking and digging, the latter being associated with food caching. Finally, we assessed the spatio-temporal concordance of fox digging and greater snow goose (Anser caerulescens antlanticus) nesting, to test the ecological relevance of our behavioural classification in a well-known study system dominated by top-down trophic interactions. Results The random forest model yielded the best behavioural classification, with accuracies for each behaviour over 96%. Overall, arctic foxes spent 49% of the time motionless, 34% running, 9% walking, and 8% digging. The probability of digging increased with goose nest density and this result held during both goose egg incubation and brooding periods. Conclusions Accelerometry combined with GPS allowed us to track across space and time a critical foraging behaviour from a small active hunting predator, informing on spatio-temporal distribution of predation risk in an Arctic vertebrate community. Our study opens new possibilities for assessing the foraging behaviour of terrestrial predators, a key step to disentangle the subtle mechanisms structuring many predator–prey interactions and trophic networks.
format	article
author	Jeanne Clermont Sasha Woodward-Gagné Dominique Berteaux
author_facet	Jeanne Clermont Sasha Woodward-Gagné Dominique Berteaux
author_sort	Jeanne Clermont
title	Digging into the behaviour of an active hunting predator: arctic fox prey caching events revealed by accelerometry
title_short	Digging into the behaviour of an active hunting predator: arctic fox prey caching events revealed by accelerometry
title_full	Digging into the behaviour of an active hunting predator: arctic fox prey caching events revealed by accelerometry
title_fullStr	Digging into the behaviour of an active hunting predator: arctic fox prey caching events revealed by accelerometry
title_full_unstemmed	Digging into the behaviour of an active hunting predator: arctic fox prey caching events revealed by accelerometry
title_sort	digging into the behaviour of an active hunting predator: arctic fox prey caching events revealed by accelerometry
publisher	BMC
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/e1c26f9452cc42419f148e58dd47dddf
work_keys_str_mv	AT jeanneclermont diggingintothebehaviourofanactivehuntingpredatorarcticfoxpreycachingeventsrevealedbyaccelerometry AT sashawoodwardgagne diggingintothebehaviourofanactivehuntingpredatorarcticfoxpreycachingeventsrevealedbyaccelerometry AT dominiqueberteaux diggingintothebehaviourofanactivehuntingpredatorarcticfoxpreycachingeventsrevealedbyaccelerometry
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Digging into the behaviour of an active hunting predator: arctic fox prey caching events revealed by accelerometry

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