Meeting Abstract

89.2  Sunday, Jan. 6  Dynamics of high speed locomotion and hunting in free ranging cheetah WILSON, AM*; ROSKILLY, K; LOWE, J; HUDSON, P; GOLABEK, K; MCNUTT, J; RVC, London; RVC, London; RVC, London; RVC, London; BPCT, Botswana; BPCT, Botswana awilson@rvc.ac.uk

Studies of maximum performance are limited by subject motivation and attempts by ourselves and others to measure domestic cheetah performance show limited straight line and manoeuvring performance. We set out to describe the speed, acceleration and manoeuvring of wild cheetahs when hunting. We developed a collar powered by a combination of rechargeable, non rechargeable batteries and solar panels. Sensors comprise a 5Hz L1 pseudorange Doppler data GPS receiver, 3-axis MEMS accelerometer, 3 axis MEMS gyroscope, and a 3 axis magnetometer. Data were off loaded via a wireless link to an aircraft or vehicle. The sensors provide, at 300 Hz, acceleration (force) and with integration velocity and position, angular velocity and with integration heading and orientation of the collar and (approximately) the cheetah. GPS and IMU data are fused using our own Kalman filtering optimised for sensor characteristics and animal dynamics to provide the data we require. The collar adapts its operation (and hence power consumption) across six states depending on the time of day, the animal’s activity level and battery voltage. This allows collection of fine grained behaviour and movement data and therefore unbiased records of hunting behaviour data. Collars were attached to five cheetahs in the Okavango Delta area of Botswana. To date we have collected data for 169 runs from these five cheetah and data collection is ongoing. Successful hunts involve rapid acceleration and deceleration indicating high muscle powers, relatively high speed galloping and a period of manoeuvring with high lateral accelerations. We have also deployed similar collars on other predators in the study area.