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The Relationship Between GPS Sampling Interval and Estimated Daily Travel Distances in Chacma Baboons (Papio ursinus)
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Andrew King
International Journal of Primatology, Volume: 42, Pages: 589 - 599
Swansea University Authors:
Anna Bracken, Charlotte Christensen, Ines Fuertbauer , Andrew King
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DOI (Published version): 10.1007/s10764-021-00220-8
Abstract
Modern studies of animal movement use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to estimate animals’ distance traveled. The temporal resolution of GPS fixes recorded should match those of the behavior of interest; otherwise estimates are likely to be inappropriate. Here, we investigate how different GPS s...
| Published in: | International Journal of Primatology |
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| ISSN: | 0164-0291 1573-8604 |
| Published: |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2021
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56993 |
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| Abstract: |
Modern studies of animal movement use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to estimate animals’ distance traveled. The temporal resolution of GPS fixes recorded should match those of the behavior of interest; otherwise estimates are likely to be inappropriate. Here, we investigate how different GPS sampling intervals affect estimated daily travel distances for wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus). By subsampling GPS data collected at one fix per second for 143 daily travel distances (12 baboons over 11–12 days), we found that less frequent GPS fixes result in smaller estimated travel distances. Moving from a GPS frequency of one fix every second to one fix every 30 s resulted in a 33% reduction in estimated daily travel distance, while using hourly GPS fixes resulted in a 66% reduction. We then use the relationship we find between estimated travel distance and GPS sampling interval to recalculate published baboon daily travel distances and find that accounting for the predicted effect of sampling interval does not affect conclusions of previous comparative analyses. However, if short-interval or continuous GPS data—which are becoming more common in studies of primate movement ecology—are compared with historical (longer interval) GPS data in future work, controlling for sampling interval is necessary. |
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| Keywords: |
Daily travel distance; Day path length; GPS; Movement ecology; Papio ursinus |
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Start Page: |
589 |
| End Page: |
599 |