Abstract
Animal behavior is elicited, in part, in response to external conditions, but understanding how animals perceive the environment and make the decisions that bring about these behavioral responses is challenging.Animal heads often move during specific behaviors and, additionally, typically have sensory systems (notably vision, smell, and hearing) sampling in defined arcs (normally to the front of their heads). As such, head‐mounted electronic sensors consisting of accelerometers and magnetometers, which can be used to determine the movement and directionality of animal heads (where head “movement” is defined here as changes in heading [azimuth] and/or pitch [elevation angle]), can potentially provide information both on behaviors in general and also clarify which parts of the environment the animals might be prioritizing (“environmental framing”).We propose a new approach to visualize the data of such head‐mounted tags that combines the instantaneous outputs of head heading and pitch in a single intuitive spherical plot. This sphere has magnetic heading denoted by “longitude” position and head pitch by “latitude” on this “orientation sphere” (O‐sphere).We construct the O‐sphere for the head rotations of a number of vertebrates with contrasting body shape and ecology (oryx, sheep, tortoises, and turtles), illustrating various behaviors, including foraging, walking, and environmental scanning. We also propose correcting head orientations for body orientations to highlight specific heading‐independent head rotation, and propose the derivation of O‐sphere‐metrics, such as angular speed across the sphere. This should help identify the functions of various head behaviors.Visualizations of the O‐sphere provide an intuitive representation of animal behavior manifest via head orientation and rotation. This has ramifications for quantifying and understanding behaviors ranging from navigation through vigilance to feeding and, when used in tandem with body movement, should provide an important link between perception of the environment and response to it in free‐ranging animals.
Highlights
Mauritius the environment the anima s might be prioritizing environmenta framing combines the instantaneous outputs of head heading and pitch in a sing e intuitive spherica p ot This sphere has magnetic heading denoted by ongitude position and head pitch by atitude on this orientation sphere O sphere
Wi son Norman et a have proven usefu on. We propose that these metrics we term the orientation sphere O sphere cf simi ar representa the most accurate determinations of tag pitch ang e for va ues tions for visua fie d data Martin around the horizonta
Head pitch and heading inc uding changes in these two param a ity in O sphere p ots is usefu in cases where heading is specif eters high ights many behaviors c ear y and we suggest that the ica y re evant grazing being one Figure but superf uous and
Summary
A dabra tortoise time series p ots of the carapace attached tag re head orientation with respect to the body According y in the turt e cording at examp e the orientation of the head c ear y showed greater range of. Turning points on the O sphere identified using the SSSD spike method see text app ied to a min dataset of a sheep fitted with head and body tags performing different behaviors moving resting and grazing Row a shows a circu ar p ot for head heading with time deve opment represented by increasing radius with ye ow showing head pitched down through orange and red to purp e showing head INCREASINGLY pitched up b shows the same data on O spheres whi e c shows the head and body headings over time in a conventiona p ot In c the turn points in the head green circ es genera y concur with the turn points in the body b ue circ es except for those points in ye ow which high ight turn points of the head that are not mirrored by the body Note how few ye ow points occur when the anima is resting compared to moving when the sheep scans the environment and fixates on re evant parts as it trave s (a). A the anima frames the environment and behaves The O sphere is m figshare data wi be archived in Figshare under DOI
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