Can metrics of acceleration provide accurate estimates of energy costs of locomotion on uneven terrain? Using domestic sheep (Ovis aries) as an example

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dc.contributor.authorMulvenna, Christina
dc.contributor.authorMarks, Nikki J.
dc.contributor.authorWilson, Rory P.
dc.contributor.authorHalsey, Lewis G.
dc.contributor.authorScantlebury, David M.
dc.date.accessioned2022-03-28T14:57:25Z
dc.date.available2022-03-28T14:57:25Z
dc.date.issued2022-03-03
dc.descriptionPublication history: Accepted - 18 February 2022; Published - 3 March 2022.en_US
dc.description.abstractBackground: Locomotion is often a necessity for animal survival and can account for a large proportion of an individual’s energy budget. Therefore, determining the energy costs of locomotion is an important part of understanding the interaction between an animal and its environment. Measures of animal acceleration, specifically ‘dynamic body acceleration’ (DBA) has proved to be a useful proxy of the energy cost of locomotion. However, few studies have considered the effects of interacting factors such as the animal’s speed or changes to the terrain slope on the putative acceleration versus energy expenditure relationship and how this may affect the relationship between DBA and energy expenditure. Methods: Here we conducted a methodological study to evaluate the ability of the metric ‘vectorial dynamic body acceleration’, VeDBA, obtained from tri-axial accelerometer data loggers, to act as a proxy for energy expenditure in non-uniform environments. We used indirect calorimetry to measure the oxygen consumption (V̇O2) of domestic sheep (Ovis aries) that were exposed to different ambient temperatures when immobile (resting) and that walked at various speeds (0.8 to 2.9 km h− 1) and slope angles (− 6° to 6°) on a treadmill while simultaneously measuring tri-axial acceleration recorded at 40 Hz by body-mounted tags. Results: The lower critical temperature of sheep was identified as 18 °C, and V̇O2 when they were immobile was 3.67 mL O2 kg− 1 min− 1. There were positive relationships between V̇O2, VeDBA, and speed of walking. However, VeDBA correlated less well with V̇O2 when the terrain slope either inclined or declined. Conclusions: We advocate caution when using DBA metrics for establishing energy use in animals moving over uneven terrain and suggest that each study species or location must be examined on a case-by-case basis. Reliance upon the relationship described between acceleration and energy expenditure on horizontal-surface treadmills can lead to potential under- or over-estimates of energy expenditure when animals walk on uneven or inclined ground.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipDepartment of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), Northern Ireland provided a studentship to CCM, through which this research was conducted.en_US
dc.identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12518/424
dc.identifier.citationMulvenna, C.C., Marks, N.J., Wilson, R.P., Halsey, L.G. and Scantlebury, D.M. (2022) ‘Can metrics of acceleration provide accurate estimates of energy costs of locomotion on uneven terrain? Using domestic sheep (Ovis aries) as an example’, Animal Biotelemetry. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1186/s40317-022-00281-3.en_US
dc.identifier.issn2050-3385 (electronic)
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1186/s40317-022-00281-3
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherBMCen_US
dc.rightsThis is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.en_US
dc.subjectDynamic body accelerationen_US
dc.subjectEnergy expenditureen_US
dc.subjectLocomotionen_US
dc.subjectOxygen consumptionen_US
dc.subjectSlopeen_US
dc.subjectTerrainen_US
dc.subjectThermoregulationen_US
dc.subjectIndirect calorimetryen_US
dc.subjectAccelerometryen_US
dc.subjectTreadmillen_US
dc.titleCan metrics of acceleration provide accurate estimates of energy costs of locomotion on uneven terrain? Using domestic sheep (Ovis aries) as an exampleen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dcterms.dateAccepted2022-02-18
dcterms.dateSubmitted2021-09-30

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