Methodological advances in identifying foraging strategies in cooperative and solitary canids

Modern animal-attached sensors allow high resolution measurement of animal movement on physiological as well as geographical scales. Measuring fine-scale movements of animals in this way, i.e., biologging, can unlock behavioural insights which would otherwise not be possible. However, analysis of the large, complex datasets gathered from such sensors can propose significant challenges. Here I outline methods for refining study design, data collection and analysis of movement datasets, while maintaining and quantifying animal welfare. This thesis begins with a review of how advances in biologging can improve our understanding of predation energetics, including outlining key future directions and knowledge gaps. One key recommendation revolves around a combined approach working on captive and wild datasets. As such, I then describe insights obtained from two systems, captive African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) and wild red foxes (Vulpes vulpes). Tri-axial accelerometer and magnetometer data collected on captive African wild dogs were used to assess anaesthesia recovery, quantify activity patterns in relation to food received and reveal fine-scale space use through dead-reckoning. Moving to a wild system, I outline the difficulties encountered and refinements made in capturing and collaring wild red foxes. GPS, accelerometer and magnetometer data were then analysed to reveal the movement dynamics of urban foxes in Dublin, Ireland and behaviour classification rules are provided. A case study shows the promise of linking behaviour classification and the dead-reckoning path reconstruction method to further contextualise fox behaviour in the landscape. I conclude with a discussion on future directions following the work presented here and lessons for working on biologging datasets. Continued and larger-scale application of the methods presented here can provide important ecological insights into the foraging ecology of social and solitary canids under global change.