The BAARA (Biological AutomAted RAdiotracking) system: a new approach in ecological field studies

The BAARA (Biological AutomAted RAdiotracking) system: a new approach in ecological field studies

Radiotracking is an important and often the only possible method to explore specific habits and the behaviour of animals, but it has proven to be very demanding and time-consuming, especially when frequent positioning of a large group is required. Our aim was to address this issue by making the proc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one Vol. 10; no. 2; p. e0116785
Main Authors: Åerucha, Å imon, Bartonicka, Tomás, Jedlicka, Petr, Äížek, Martin, Hlousa, Ondrej, Lucan, Radek, Horácek, Ivan
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Public Library of Science 25-02-2015
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Algorithms
Animal behavior
Animals
Animals, Wild
Behavior, Animal
Biotelemetry
Bombus
Chiroptera
Ecological monitoring
Ecology
Egypt
Environmental aspects
Fieldwork
Fourier transforms
Laboratory tests
Parameters
Population ecology
Propagation
Receivers & amplifiers
Signal processing
Small mammals
Systems design
Telecommunications equipment
Telemetry
Tracking stations
Tracking systems
Transmitters
Zoology
Egypt
New York
Czech Republic
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Summary:Radiotracking is an important and often the only possible method to explore specific habits and the behaviour of animals, but it has proven to be very demanding and time-consuming, especially when frequent positioning of a large group is required. Our aim was to address this issue by making the process partially automated, to mitigate the demands and related costs. This paper presents a novel automated tracking system that consists of a network of automated tracking stations deployed within the target area. Each station reads the signals from telemetry transmitters, estimates the bearing and distance of the tagged animals and records their position. The station is capable of tracking a theoretically unlimited number of transmitters on different frequency channels with the period of 5-15 seconds per single channel. An ordinary transmitter that fits within the supported frequency band might be used with BAARA (Biological AutomAted RAdiotracking); an extra option is the use of a custom-programmable transmitter with configurable operational parameters, such as the precise frequency channel or the transmission parameters. This new approach to a tracking system was tested for its applicability in a series of field and laboratory tests. BAARA has been tested within fieldwork explorations of Rousettus aegyptiacus during field trips to Dakhla oasis in Egypt. The results illustrate the novel perspective which automated radiotracking opens for the study of spatial behaviour, particularly in addressing topics in the domain of population ecology.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Conceived and designed the experiments: SR TB PJ. Performed the experiments: PJ SR TB. Analyzed the data: SR TB PJ MC OH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SR TB PJ MC RL IH. Wrote the paper: SR TB PJ RL IH.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0116785