ESR prepress abstract  -  doi: 10.3354/esr00091

ABSTRACT: Animal behaviour is largely defined in terms of movement or lack of it, so precise quantification of animal movement is a potentially powerful way of identifying several animal behaviours. Animal-attached tags that record acceleration lend themselves particularly to this. In the present study we show how tri-axial acceleration can be used to identify some of the behaviours of imperial cormorants Phalacrocorax atriceps. Based on the assessment of tri-axial acceleration signals the following behaviours were identified in free-living birds: standing, sitting, floating on water, flying, walking and diving. During diving, the descent, bottom and ascent phases could be distinguished. Consideration of the factors coding for the different behaviours allowed us to design a key that will allow workers assessing tri-axial accelerometry data to identify some of the behaviours of Phalacrocorax atriceps.