Meeting Abstract
The ranging of mammals living in arid environments is limited by their requirement to drink. Physiological adaption amongst these species varies ranging from non-obligate drinkers to animals that drink daily. Whilst Plain’s zebra usually drink daily specific populations in arid regions of Botswana drink once every 3-5 days. This adaptation enables them to maximize the time spent in distal grazing grounds where forage is of better quality. Here we set out to devise a method of determining water intake to enable evaluation of the physiology of these specialised zebra. The system consisted of two AMTI forceplates combined to give a sensor area of 1800x600mm. The plates were buried under a game trail leading to/from a water point in the Makgadikgadi N.P., Botswana. Forceplate data were fed to a Raspberry Pi computer buried adjacent to the plates where force data were monitored and recorded. Video data were continuously buffered using a commercial Webcam and clips recorded to the Raspberry Pi whenever animals were moving over the plates. Comparisons were then made of the weights of incoming and outgoing adult animals with correction for faecal loss. There were a number of challenges in deploying the system including enthusiastic investigation by elephants and maintaining a natural environment to ensure continued trail usage. The data generated are of sufficient quality to enable good estimates of intake, allowing the water balance of these specialised zebra to be modelled and improving understanding of the population’s resilience in the face of increasing climatic variability.
