ABSTRACT
Animal-borne cameras rst appeared over 100 years ago, when pigeons tted with camera collars captured blackand-white images of buildings and streets during ight, and were even used as spies in World War II. Since those early days, camera technology has evolved tremendously, allowing these devices to shrink drastically yet attain the capacity to record hours of color video (Figure 5.1). These technological advancements have made miniature animal-borne
cameras attractive tools for documenting animal behaviors that are difcult or impossible to observe directly. These cameras are often integrated into multi-sensor packages collectively referred to as animal-borne video and environmental data collection systems (AVEDs), which are providing new understandings of the foraging ecology, habitat selection, and social behaviors of animals in terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial environments (Moll et al., 2007). Arguably, some of the greatest insight provided by AVEDs has come from deployments on marine taxa because these animals reside in
CONTENTS
5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................. 83 5.2 Research Areas ............................................................................................................................................................. 84
5.2.1 Habitat Selection ............................................................................................................................................... 84 5.2.2 Foraging ............................................................................................................................................................ 85 5.2.3 Mating and Social Behaviors ............................................................................................................................ 86 5.2.4 Conservation and Fisheries ............................................................................................................................... 87 5.2.5 Sharks as Observation Platforms ...................................................................................................................... 88
5.3 Methods and Future Considerations ............................................................................................................................. 88 5.3.1 Attachment and Retrieval Methods .................................................................................................................. 88 5.3.2 Miniaturization and Drag Reduction ................................................................................................................ 88 5.3.3 Energy Efciency, Recording Time, and Smart Duty Cycling ........................................................................ 89 5.3.4 Development of New Camera Technologies ..................................................................................................... 89 5.3.5 Integration with Other Sensors and Data Analysis .......................................................................................... 89
5.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................................... 90 Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................................................................. 90 References .............................................................................................................................................................................. 90
a highly concealing environment and are almost impossible to observe via other methods. Despite recent advancements, the use of AVED technology is still relatively rare in wildlife studies, and most species have never been equipped with any kind of animal-borne camera; hence, the majority of studies are still descriptive and not hypothesis driven (Moll et al., 2007; but see Heaslip et al., 2014).
