A tri‐axial acceleration‐based behaviour template for translocated birds: the case of the Asian houbara bustard

Abstract

Understanding the behaviours and time budgets of translocated animals post‐release has the potential to improve rearing and release protocols, and therefore survival rate. Otididae (bustards) inhabit open landscapes across the Middle East and Asia, are highly mobile on the ground and have similar lifestyles and body plans. The Asian houbara Chlamydotis macqueenii is a bustard of conservation concern inhabiting the Middle East to Central Asia and is frequently reared in captivity for population management. We deployed tri‐axial accelerometers on 20 captive Asian houbaras in two seasons to catalogue basic behaviours, provide a template applicable to other bustard species and examine seasonal differences in behaviour. We created Boolean algorithms to define the following behaviours using raw acceleration data and derived metrics: stationary, eating/drinking and locomotion. We used video recordings to cross‐validate the algorithms, yielding recalls from 95 to 97%, and precisions between 97 and 98%. Houbaras spent significantly more time ‘stationary' and less time on ‘locomotion' in summer (June) compared to spring (March). Simple Boolean algorithms proved useful in identifying several behaviours and have the potential to be applicable to other bustard species, in captivity and in the wild post‐release.Keywords: accelerometer, animal behaviour, Asian houbara bustard, captive breeding, conservation translocation