In:
Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems, Canadian Science Publishing, Vol. 7, No. 3 ( 2019-09-01), p. 194-206
Abstract:
Spatial proximity is an important metric in cattle behaviour, which is used to study social structure, dyadic relationships, as well as grazing and maternal behaviours. We developed an efficient, novel, non-invasive method to quantify the spatial proximity of beef cattle by using UAV-based image acquisition and photogrammetric analysis. Orthomosaics constructed by images obtained from UAVs were used to measure, with an accuracy of ±1.96 m (95% likelihood), the inter-individual distances between cows and calves. Aerial videos of the calves and their dams, held in a 5 ha pasture, were made over four days using UAVs. We used two UAVs to video-capture the following: (i) the location of all individuals (UAV flown at 100 m) and (ii) the identity of cow–calf pairs (UAV flown at 15–30 m). Still-images extracted from the UAV-acquired video screenshots were used to produce orthomosaics. The orthomosaics captured all the cows and calves in a single image, from which we measured the distance between related and non-related cow–calf pairs. This UAV-based orthomosaic method clearly showed that members of related pairs were closer than non-related ones, and that the distance was greater in the evening, demonstrating the utility of UAVs to accurately measure cattle spatial proximity.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2291-3467
DOI:
10.1139/juvs-2018-0025
Language:
English
Publisher:
Canadian Science Publishing
Publication Date:
2019
detail.hit.zdb_id:
3113559-6
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2755479-X
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