The advantages and challenges of non-invasive towed PILOT tags for free-ranging deep-diving megafauna
Abstract Background Biologging technologies have yielded new insights into the ecology and behaviour of elasmobranchs, but to date, most studies involve animal capture and restraint to attach tags. Capturing animals usually results in a period of atypical behaviour after release and is undesirable o...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
BMC
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Animal Biotelemetry |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40317-022-00310-1 |
| _version_ | 1797865248863027200 |
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| author | J. Fontes B. Macena S. Solleliet-Ferreira F. Buyle R. Magalhães T. Bartolomeu N. Liebsch C. Meyer P. Afonso |
| author_facet | J. Fontes B. Macena S. Solleliet-Ferreira F. Buyle R. Magalhães T. Bartolomeu N. Liebsch C. Meyer P. Afonso |
| author_sort | J. Fontes |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Biologging technologies have yielded new insights into the ecology and behaviour of elasmobranchs, but to date, most studies involve animal capture and restraint to attach tags. Capturing animals usually results in a period of atypical behaviour after release and is undesirable or simply not possible for large and vulnerable elasmobranchs such as mobulas and whale sharks. To avoid animal capture and restraint, we developed and tested two non-invasive multisensor towed tags. The use of towed packages creates additional data analytical challenges relative to fixed packages because towed devices wobble independently of animal movements. We present five examples, two mobulas (reef manta and sicklefin devil ray) and three sharks (blue, tiger and whale shark), to illustrate the advantages and challenges of this approach. We used animal-borne video to validate behavioural data derived from accelerometers and conducted an experiment to compare accelerometer data from attached and towed tags simultaneously deployed on a shark. Results We used fluid dynamic models to calculate the added drag of towed devices on target species. We found that drag impact is acceptable for short-term tagging of large mobulas, but the drag penalty associated with the current camera tag design is greater than 5% for most mature blue sharks. Despite wobble effects, swimming behaviour (tail-beat and wing-stroke frequency) captured by towed accelerometers was consistent with those attached directly to the animal and with data from animal-borne video. Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors recorded up to 28 and 9 geolocations per hour of surface swimming by sicklefin devil ray and blue sharks, respectively. Conclusions Towed tags with non-invasive attachments provide an effective alternative for acquiring high-resolution behaviour and environmental data without capturing and handling animals. This tool yields great potential to advance current knowledge of mobula ecology and behaviour without capture or invasive tagging. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T23:05:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5398346f70184ce19bb6faf38ccb4e49 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-3385 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T23:05:09Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Animal Biotelemetry |
| spelling | doaj.art-5398346f70184ce19bb6faf38ccb4e492023-03-22T10:44:48ZengBMCAnimal Biotelemetry2050-33852022-12-0110111310.1186/s40317-022-00310-1The advantages and challenges of non-invasive towed PILOT tags for free-ranging deep-diving megafaunaJ. Fontes0B. Macena1S. Solleliet-Ferreira2F. Buyle3R. Magalhães4T. Bartolomeu5N. Liebsch6C. Meyer7P. Afonso8Institute of Marine Sciences - Okeanos, University of the AzoresInstitute of Marine Sciences - Okeanos, University of the AzoresInstitute of Marine Sciences - Okeanos, University of the AzoresNektos.NetCentre for Engineering and Product DevelopmentCentre for Engineering and Product DevelopmentCustomized Animal Tracking SolutionsHawai’i Institute of Marine Biology, Hawaii University at ManoaInstitute of Marine Sciences - Okeanos, University of the AzoresAbstract Background Biologging technologies have yielded new insights into the ecology and behaviour of elasmobranchs, but to date, most studies involve animal capture and restraint to attach tags. Capturing animals usually results in a period of atypical behaviour after release and is undesirable or simply not possible for large and vulnerable elasmobranchs such as mobulas and whale sharks. To avoid animal capture and restraint, we developed and tested two non-invasive multisensor towed tags. The use of towed packages creates additional data analytical challenges relative to fixed packages because towed devices wobble independently of animal movements. We present five examples, two mobulas (reef manta and sicklefin devil ray) and three sharks (blue, tiger and whale shark), to illustrate the advantages and challenges of this approach. We used animal-borne video to validate behavioural data derived from accelerometers and conducted an experiment to compare accelerometer data from attached and towed tags simultaneously deployed on a shark. Results We used fluid dynamic models to calculate the added drag of towed devices on target species. We found that drag impact is acceptable for short-term tagging of large mobulas, but the drag penalty associated with the current camera tag design is greater than 5% for most mature blue sharks. Despite wobble effects, swimming behaviour (tail-beat and wing-stroke frequency) captured by towed accelerometers was consistent with those attached directly to the animal and with data from animal-borne video. Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors recorded up to 28 and 9 geolocations per hour of surface swimming by sicklefin devil ray and blue sharks, respectively. Conclusions Towed tags with non-invasive attachments provide an effective alternative for acquiring high-resolution behaviour and environmental data without capturing and handling animals. This tool yields great potential to advance current knowledge of mobula ecology and behaviour without capture or invasive tagging.https://doi.org/10.1186/s40317-022-00310-1Non-invasiveBio-loggersSharksMobulasSwimming behaviour |
| spellingShingle | J. Fontes B. Macena S. Solleliet-Ferreira F. Buyle R. Magalhães T. Bartolomeu N. Liebsch C. Meyer P. Afonso The advantages and challenges of non-invasive towed PILOT tags for free-ranging deep-diving megafauna Animal Biotelemetry Non-invasive Bio-loggers Sharks Mobulas Swimming behaviour |
| title | The advantages and challenges of non-invasive towed PILOT tags for free-ranging deep-diving megafauna |
| title_full | The advantages and challenges of non-invasive towed PILOT tags for free-ranging deep-diving megafauna |
| title_fullStr | The advantages and challenges of non-invasive towed PILOT tags for free-ranging deep-diving megafauna |
| title_full_unstemmed | The advantages and challenges of non-invasive towed PILOT tags for free-ranging deep-diving megafauna |
| title_short | The advantages and challenges of non-invasive towed PILOT tags for free-ranging deep-diving megafauna |
| title_sort | advantages and challenges of non invasive towed pilot tags for free ranging deep diving megafauna |
| topic | Non-invasive Bio-loggers Sharks Mobulas Swimming behaviour |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40317-022-00310-1 |
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