TITLE:
Spatiotemporal Cattle Data—A Plea for Protocol Standardization
AUTHORS:
Dean M. Anderson, Rick E. Estell, Andres F. Cibils
KEYWORDS:
Cattle Behavior; Animal Tracking; GPS
JOURNAL NAME:
Positioning,
Vol.4 No.1,
February
28,
2013
ABSTRACT:
It was not until the end of the 1990’s
that animal born satellite receivers catapulted range cattle ecology into the
21st century world of microchip technology with all of its opportunities and
challenges. With the global navigation satellite system (GNSS), insight about
how cattle use a landscape is being revealed from previously unknown temporal
and spatial behaviors.
The most common system to date for studying ungulate movement is the global
positioning system (GPS). With its use has come a clarity and completeness in
documenting spatial and temporal data in new and exciting ways that offer
almost unlimited possibilities to better understand and manage economic and
societal returns from animal dominated landscapes. However, its use on free-ranging cattle is not
without challenges, some of which are yet to be optimally solved. To maximize
the usefulness of GNSS data, consideration must be given to: 1) developing a
standardized protocol
for reporting and analyzing research that facilitates interpretation of results
across different ecosystems; 2) develop
optimum ranges over which to collect satellite fixes depending upon the
particular behaviors of interest; and 3)
concurrently develop electronic hardware and equipment platforms that are
easily deployed on animals and that are light, robust, and can be worn by
cattle for extended periods of time without human intervention (e.g., changing
batteries). Once data are collected, appropriate geographic information system
(GIS) based models should be used to produce a series of products that can be
used to implement flexible management strategies, some of which may support
methodologies that are yet to be commercialized and adopted into future
plant-animal interface management routines.