1. The use of animal-borne cameras to video-track the behaviour of domestic cats
- Author
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Samantha Watson and Maren Huck
- Subjects
Observer (quantum physics) ,Computer science ,Potential risk ,business.industry ,05 social sciences ,0402 animal and dairy science ,Direct observation ,04 agricultural and veterinary sciences ,Machine learning ,computer.software_genre ,040201 dairy & animal science ,Free roaming ,Ethogram ,Food Animals ,Video tracking ,Animal welfare ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Animal Science and Zoology ,050102 behavioral science & comparative psychology ,Artificial intelligence ,business ,computer ,Reliability (statistics) - Abstract
Free roaming domestic animals can have a profound effect on wildlife. To better understand and mitigate any impact, it is important to understand the behaviour patterns of the domestic animals, and how other variables might influence their behaviour. Direct observation is not always feasible and bears the potential risk of observer effects. The use of animal-borne small video-cameras provides the opportunity to study behaviour from the animal’s point of view. While video-tracking has been used previously to study specific aspects of the behaviour of a species, it has not been used so far to determine detailed time-budgets. The aim of this study was to provide and validate an ethogram based on cat-camera footage collected from 16 cats (Felis catus). The methodology was validated comparing films recorded simultaneously, from both collar-mounted video recorders and hand-held video recorders. Additionally, the inter-observer reliability of scorers was measured. Continuous and instantaneous recording regimes were compared, and behavioural accumulation curves were evaluated to provide further technique recommendations for video-tracking cats. Video-tracking allows scoring of behaviour as reliably as direct observation (linear mixed effects model: t
- Published
- 2019
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