TY - JOUR
T1 - BoomBox
T2 - An Automated Behavioural Response (ABR) camera trap module for wildlife playback experiments
AU - Palmer, Meredith S.
AU - Wang, Chris
AU - Plucinski, Jacinta
AU - Pringle, Robert M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Scientific Services at Grumeti and Gorongosa for research permissions and field support. We are grateful to S. O'Donnell and the WILDLABS.NET community for facilitating this collaboration. Research was funded by the National Science Foundation (PRFB‐1810586, IOS‐1656527, DEB‐1457697), the Cameron Schrier Foundation and the High Meadows Environmental Institute at Princeton University.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 British Ecological Society
PY - 2022/3
Y1 - 2022/3
N2 - Camera traps (CTs) are a valuable tool in ecological research, amassing large quantities of information on the behaviour of diverse wildlife communities. CTs are predominantly used as passive data loggers to gather observational data for correlational analyses. Integrating CTs into experimental studies, however, can enable rigorous testing of key hypotheses in animal behaviour and conservation biology that are otherwise difficult or impossible to evaluate. We developed the 'BoomBox', an open-source Arduino-compatible board that attaches to commercially available CTs to form an Automated Behavioural Response (ABR) system. The modular unit connects directly to the CT’s passive infrared (PIR) motion sensor, playing audio files over external speakers when the sensor is triggered. This creates a remote playback system that captures animal responses to specific cues, combining the benefits of camera trapping (e.g. continuous monitoring in remote locations, lack of human observers, large data volume) with the power of experimental manipulations (e.g. controlled perturbations for strong mechanistic inference). Our system builds on previous ABR designs to provide a cheap (~100USD) and customizable field tool. We provide a practical guide detailing how to build and operate the BoomBox ABR system with suggestions for potential experimental designs that address a variety of questions in wildlife ecology. As proof-of-concept, we successfully field tested the BoomBox in two distinct field settings to study species interactions (predator–prey and predator–predator) and wildlife responses to conservation interventions. This new tool allows researchers to conduct a unique suite of manipulative experiments on free-living species in complex environments, enhancing the ability to identify mechanistic drivers of species' behaviours and interactions in natural systems.
AB - Camera traps (CTs) are a valuable tool in ecological research, amassing large quantities of information on the behaviour of diverse wildlife communities. CTs are predominantly used as passive data loggers to gather observational data for correlational analyses. Integrating CTs into experimental studies, however, can enable rigorous testing of key hypotheses in animal behaviour and conservation biology that are otherwise difficult or impossible to evaluate. We developed the 'BoomBox', an open-source Arduino-compatible board that attaches to commercially available CTs to form an Automated Behavioural Response (ABR) system. The modular unit connects directly to the CT’s passive infrared (PIR) motion sensor, playing audio files over external speakers when the sensor is triggered. This creates a remote playback system that captures animal responses to specific cues, combining the benefits of camera trapping (e.g. continuous monitoring in remote locations, lack of human observers, large data volume) with the power of experimental manipulations (e.g. controlled perturbations for strong mechanistic inference). Our system builds on previous ABR designs to provide a cheap (~100USD) and customizable field tool. We provide a practical guide detailing how to build and operate the BoomBox ABR system with suggestions for potential experimental designs that address a variety of questions in wildlife ecology. As proof-of-concept, we successfully field tested the BoomBox in two distinct field settings to study species interactions (predator–prey and predator–predator) and wildlife responses to conservation interventions. This new tool allows researchers to conduct a unique suite of manipulative experiments on free-living species in complex environments, enhancing the ability to identify mechanistic drivers of species' behaviours and interactions in natural systems.
KW - Arduino open-source development platform
KW - Automated Behavioural Response system
KW - acoustic cues
KW - animal behaviour
KW - behavioural ecology
KW - camera trap modification
KW - playback experiment
KW - species interactions
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U2 - 10.1111/2041-210X.13789
DO - 10.1111/2041-210X.13789
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85122441769
SN - 2041-210X
VL - 13
SP - 611
EP - 618
JO - Methods in Ecology and Evolution
JF - Methods in Ecology and Evolution
IS - 3
ER -