Animal lifestyle affects acceptable mass limits for attached tags
Type
SoftwareAuthors
Wilson, Rory P.
Rose, Kayleigh A.

Gunner, Richard

Holton, Mark D.
Marks, Nikki J.
Bennett, Nigel C.

Bell, Stephen H.
Twining, Joshua P.

Hesketh, Jamie
Duarte, Carlos M.

Bezodis, Neil
Jezek, Milos
Painter, Michael
Silovsky, Vaclav
Crofoot, Margaret C.
Harel, Roi
Arnould, John P. Y.

Allan, Blake M.
Whisson, Desley A.
Alagaili, Abdulaziz
Scantlebury, David M.

KAUST Department
Marine Science ProgramRed Sea Research Center (RSRC)
Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE) Division
Date
2021-11-16Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/687057
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Animal-attached devices have transformed our understanding of vertebrate ecology. To minimize any associated harm, researchers have long advocated that tag masses should not exceed 3% of carrier body mass. However, this ignores tag forces resulting from animal movement. Using data from collar-attached accelerometers on 10 diverse free-ranging terrestrial species from koalas to cheetahs, we detail a tag-based acceleration method to clarify acceptable tag mass limits. We quantify animal athleticism in terms of fractions of animal movement time devoted to different collar-recorded accelerations and convert those accelerations to forces (acceleration × tag mass) to allow derivation of any defined force limits for specified fractions of any animal's active time. Specifying that tags should exert forces that are less than 3% of the gravitational force exerted on the animal's body for 95% of the time led to corrected tag masses that should constitute between 1.6% and 2.98% of carrier mass, depending on athleticism. Strikingly, in four carnivore species encompassing two orders of magnitude in mass ( ca 2–200 kg), forces exerted by '3%' tags were equivalent to 4–19% of carrier body mass during moving, with a maximum of 54% in a hunting cheetah. This fundamentally changes how acceptable tag mass limits should be determined by ethics bodies, irrespective of the force and time limits specified.Citation
Wilson, R., Rose, K., Gunner, R., Holton, M., Marks, N., Bennett, N., Bell, S., Twining, J., Hesketh, J., Duarte, C., Bezodis, N., Jezek, M., Painter, M., Silovsky, V., Crofoot, M., Harel, R., Arnould, J., Allan, B., Whisson, D., … Scantlebury, D. (2021). Animal lifestyle affects acceptable mass limits for attached tags. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.5698025Publisher
ZenodoAdditional Links
https://zenodo.org/record/5698025Relations
Is Supplement To:- [Article]
Wilson, R. P., Rose, K. A., Gunner, R., Holton, M. D., Marks, N. J., Bennett, N. C., … Scantlebury, D. M. (2021). Animal lifestyle affects acceptable mass limits for attached tags. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 288(1961). doi:10.1098/rspb.2021.2005. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2005 Handle: 10754/673021
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.5281/zenodo.5698025