Through the eye of a Gobi khulan – Application of camera collars for ecological research of far-ranging species in remote and highly variable ecosystems

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217772
• Publication Date: 2019-06-04T17:29:47Z
• Authors: Petra Kaczensky; Sanchir Khaliun; John Payne; Bazartseren Boldgiv; Bayarbaatar Buuve...; Chris Walzer
• Keywords: 0106 biological sciences; Livestock; Science; Rain; 01 natural sciences; Species Specificity; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Photography; Animals; Humans; Ecosystem; 2. Zero hunger; Behavior, Animal; Geography; Q; R; Water; Equidae; Mongolia; 15. Life on land; Circadian Rhythm; 13. Climate action; Remote Sensing Technology; Geographic Information Systems; Medicine; VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480; Research Article

The Mongolian Gobi-Eastern Steppe Ecosystem is one of the largest remaining natural drylands and home to a unique assemblage migratory ungulates. Connectivity integrity this ecosystem are at risk if increasing human activities not carefully planned regulated. Gobi part supports population Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus; locally called "khulan"). Individual khulan roam over areas thousands square kilometers scale their movements among described for terrestrial mammals, making them particularly difficult monitor. Although GPS satellite telemetry makes it possible track animals in near-real time remote sensing provides environmental data landscape scale, remotely collected also harbors missing important abiotic or biotic variables life history events. We tested potential animal born camera systems ("camera collars") improve our understanding drivers limitations movements. Deployment collar on an adult mare resulted 7,881 images one-year period. Over half showed other 1,630 enough collared classify behaviour seen into several main categories. These provided us with: i) new insights events grouping dynamics, ii) allowed calculate budgets many more than alone, iii) with training dataset calibrating from accelerometer tilt sensors collar. document near infrastructure obtain day-time encounter rate between specific semi-nomadic herders livestock. Lastly, ground truth availability water by: confirming waterpoints predicted analyses, detecting waterpoints, compare precipitation records rain snow climate products those documented by discuss added value deploying collars subset remote, highly variable ecosystems research conservation.