![]() AUVs have been used, for example, to film leatherback sea turtles, bull and great white sharks. These AUVs can carry larger payloads, and thus collect more sensor data, and because they can carry a larger payload of batteries, can often last longer than animal-borne cameras. Thus, while spatio-temporal tracking can reveal considerable insights into animal ecology, the method often does not reveal the context or motivations for animal movement, and past tracking has not been able to resolve whether basking sharks breed in Scottish waters.ĭevelopments in autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and remote sensing have now opened up the possibility of using robotic camera and sensing technologies to film both the environment and animals themselves. Despite this, basking shark breeding has never been reported in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, although one tentative account exists in a non-technical magazine. In addition, conspicuous nose-to-tail following behaviour of basking sharks has been noted in Scottish waters, which is indicative of courtship in many shark species (reviewed in ). Subsequent work on basking sharks has revealed that western Scottish waters are an important international hotspot for basking shark occurrence. The first animal ever to be tracked by the now ubiquitous Argos satellite system was a basking shark in 1982, using a towed system that recorded up to 12 locations a day for 17 days, giving insights into their use of Scottish waters. ![]() In the marine realm, there is now a good understanding of the spatio-temporal distribution of a range of large marine vertebrate groups, such as marine mammals, sea turtles, sharks and seabirds (Seabird Tracking Database, BirdLife International, ). Revolutions in digital technology have yielded an ever-increasing range of electronic tools to track the three-dimensional movements of terrestrial and aquatic animals over space and time, as well as their internal state and physiology. The present study is the first successful use of an AUV to gain insight into the sub-surface behaviour of basking sharks. These offsets varied depending on the trade-off of between water clarity and proximity of the AUV for obtaining useful video data and directly influencing shark behaviour. AUV offset distances for videography were determined iteratively through tracking. Conspecifics were not observed in the three missions, nor were courtship or breeding behaviours. One basking shark was observed defecating. Sharks spent very little time feeding, and travelled relatively close to sandy, rocky and algae-covered benthos. We detail the first successful autonomous tracking of basking sharks, comprising three missions that filmed basking sharks in mid-water and close to benthic habitats. The basking shark is the second largest fish in the world and is endangered globally, but despite being subject to various biologging studies, little is known of this species breeding ecology and their mating grounds remain unknown. In the present study, we use an AUV, the REMUS-100 SharkCam, paired with a custom transponder tag attached to the shark, to autonomously follow three basking sharks for a cumulative total of 10.9 h to collect video and environmental data on their sub-surface behaviour. Some AUVs have been used to film target animals, but are generally limited to periods as long as a drone operator can actively follow an animal. Advances in autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs or UAVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (commonly known as drones), which can carry far larger payloads of sensor technologies, have revealed insights into the environment through which animals travel. ![]() Biologging studies have revealed a wealth of information about the spatio-temporal movements of a wide range of vertebrates large enough to carry electronic tracking tags.
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