Abstract
Remote monitoring of animal behaviour in the environment can assist in managing both the animal and its environmental impact. GPS collars which record animal locations with high temporal frequency allow researchers to monitor both animal behaviour and interactions with the environment. These ground-based sensors can be combined with remotely-sensed satellite images to understand animal-landscape interactions. The key to combining these technologies is communication methods such as wireless sensor networks (WSNs). We explore this concept using a case-study from an extensive cattle enterprise in northern Australia and demonstrate the potential for combining GPS collars and satellite images in a WSN to monitor behavioural preferences and social behaviour of cattle.
Highlights
Reducing the environmental impact of animals can be assisted by monitoring their behaviour and correlating it with environmental information to determine optimal management intervention strategies [1,2]
More recently there has been a focus on combining data from different sensing platforms using emerging technologies such as wireless sensor networks (WSNs) which enable a broad range of information to be transmitted wirelessly and facilitate analysis of the data collected by the devices worn by the animals [9]
We have presented a conceptual overview and discussion around combining ground-based sensing and remote-sensing observations within a WSN to derive improved information about animal behaviour in the environment
Summary
Reducing the environmental impact of animals can be assisted by monitoring their behaviour and correlating it with environmental information to determine optimal management intervention strategies [1,2]. More recently there has been a focus on combining data from different sensing platforms using emerging technologies such as wireless sensor networks (WSNs) which enable a broad range of information to be transmitted wirelessly and facilitate analysis of the data collected by the devices worn by the animals [9] This new generation of WSNs presents both challenges and opportunities for monitoring animal behaviour and their interaction with the environment. These current results demonstrate the potential for mobile WSNs to: Monitor behavioural preferences; Quantify social behaviour and; Integrate data from ground based animal sensors with remote sensing data to understand animallandscape interactions. We note that the concepts and conclusions in this paper are drawn from experiments involving domesticated cattle, we believe the principles of mobile WSN applications and their integration with remote sensing could be applied to the study of wild animal populations
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