Throughout the natural world, animals make long distance migrations that involve astounding feats of navigation. Collective behavior such as schooling, flocking, and herding is ubiquitous in these migratory species. A growing body of research predicts that by migrating in groups, these animals may be increasing their ability to find their way. However, despite the strong connection between collective navigation and migration, tests for such effects in nature are rare. Migratory caribou, seeking safe passage across treacherous sea ice, are not only of significant ecological and social importance, but also represent an excellent system in which to explore collective navigation in nature. In this project, the researchers will leverage recent advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones) and computer vision technology, to obtain movement trajectories of individual caribou within a herd. Using these trajectories they will determine the role of social interactions on the migratory dynamics of caribou, and investigate the risks of climate change and increased shipping traffic on these animals and their migration. RAPID funding will allow the team to join a government-led caribou survey, in November 2015, which would provide crucial logistical support and essential data. Through this collaboration, results will be disseminated directly to policy makers, improving caribou conservation and the well-being of the Aboriginal people relying on these animals for nutrition and traditional lifestyle. The technology developed will be widely applicable to other systems and provide a significant advance for the study of in situ animal behavior. Outreach associated with the research will provide extracurricular STEM education for underrepresented individuals in both Nunavut and New Mexico by engaging their imagination through the application of cutting-edge technology to important scientific questions.
Despite the clear ecological importance of animal movement, little is known about how animal groups collectively make movement decisions in their natural habitats. The purpose of this research is to prototype a holistic, state-of-the-art, open-source, remote sensing system with the capacity to capture high-definition video of animal groups in the wild and convert this footage into trajectory data, and deploy this technology to study social migration dynamics in caribou. The researchers will use the trajectory data to test the hypothesis that caribou benefit from collective navigation during their migration and uncover the specific mechanisms driving such effects. In addition to providing a tool useful for other groups studying in situ animal behavior, this research will help broaden the focus of research on navigation and migration, from the individual, to a view that explicitly includes the social context. Trajectory data will be posted on Dryad and the publicly accessible MoveBank website (http://movebank.org/).
