A path reconstruction method integrating dead-reckoning and position fixes applied to humpback whales

• Published in: Movement Ecology
• Main Authors: Wensveen, Paul J., Thomas, Len, Miller, Patrick J O
• Other Authors: Office of Naval Research, University of St Andrews. School of Biology, University of St Andrews. Statistics, University of St Andrews. School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews. Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland, University of St Andrews. Centre for Research into Ecological & Environmental Modelling, University of St Andrews. Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews. Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews. Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences, University of St Andrews. Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution, University of St Andrews. Bioacoustics group
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Megaptera novaeangliae; Marine mammal; Positioning; Fine-scale movement; State-space model; Bio-logging; Track reconstruction; Archival tag; Focal follow; QH301 Biology; DAS; SDG 14 - Life Below Water; QH301; Humpback Whale
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/11976; https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-015-0061-6

PW received a PhD studentship with matched funding from The Netherlands Ministry of Defence (administered by TNO) and the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NE/J500276/1). The 3S2 project was funded by the US Office of Naval Research (N00014-10-1-0355), the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, and The Netherlands Ministry of Defence. Part of this work was supported by the Multi-study Ocean acoustics Human effects Analysis (MOCHA) project funded by the US Office of Naval Research (N00014-12-1-0204). BACKGROUND: Detailed information about animal location and movement is often crucial in studies of natural behaviour and how animals respond to anthropogenic activities. Dead-reckoning can be used to infer such detailed information, but without additional positional data this method results in uncertainty that grows with time. Combining dead-reckoning with new Fastloc-GPS technology should provide good opportunities for reconstructing georeferenced fine-scale tracks, and should be particularly useful for marine animals that spend most of their time under water. We developed a computationally efficient, Bayesian state-space modelling technique to estimate humpback whale locations through time, integrating dead-reckoning using on-animal sensors with measurements of whale locations using on-animal Fastloc-GPS and visual observations. Positional observation models were based upon error measurements made during calibrations. RESULTS: High-resolution 3-dimensional movement tracks were produced for 13 whales using a simple process model in which errors caused by water current movements, non-location sensor errors, and other dead-reckoning errors were accumulated into a combined error term. Positional uncertainty quantified by the track reconstruction model was much greater for tracks with visual positions and few or no GPS positions, indicating a strong benefit to using Fastloc-GPS for track reconstruction. Compared to tracks derived only from position fixes, the inclusion of dead-reckoning data greatly improved the level ...