kabr-tools: Automated Framework for Multi-Species Behavioral Monitoring

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Kline, Jenna, Kholiavchenko, Maksim, Stevens, Samuel, van Tiel, Nina, Zhong, Alison, Banerji, Namrata, Sheets, Alec, Balasubramaniam, Sowbaranika, Duporge, Isla, Thompson, Matthew, Campolongo, Elizabeth, Miliko, Jackson, Rosser, Neil, Berger-Wolf, Tanya, Stewart, Charles V., Rubenstein, Daniel I.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Kline, Jenna
Kholiavchenko, Maksim
Stevens, Samuel
van Tiel, Nina
Zhong, Alison
Banerji, Namrata
Sheets, Alec
Balasubramaniam, Sowbaranika
Duporge, Isla
Thompson, Matthew
Campolongo, Elizabeth
Miliko, Jackson
Rosser, Neil
Berger-Wolf, Tanya
Stewart, Charles V.
Rubenstein, Daniel I.
author_facet Kline, Jenna
Kholiavchenko, Maksim
Stevens, Samuel
van Tiel, Nina
Zhong, Alison
Banerji, Namrata
Sheets, Alec
Balasubramaniam, Sowbaranika
Duporge, Isla
Thompson, Matthew
Campolongo, Elizabeth
Miliko, Jackson
Rosser, Neil
Berger-Wolf, Tanya
Stewart, Charles V.
Rubenstein, Daniel I.
contents A comprehensive understanding of animal behavior ecology depends on scalable approaches to quantify and interpret complex, multidimensional behavioral patterns. Traditional field observations are often limited in scope, time-consuming, and labor-intensive, hindering the assessment of behavioral responses across landscapes. To address this, we present kabr-tools (Kenyan Animal Behavior Recognition Tools), an open-source package for automated multi-species behavioral monitoring. This framework integrates drone-based video with machine learning systems to extract behavioral, social, and spatial metrics from wildlife footage. Our pipeline leverages object detection, tracking, and behavioral classification systems to generate key metrics, including time budgets, behavioral transitions, social interactions, habitat associations, and group composition dynamics. Compared to ground-based methods, drone-based observations significantly improved behavioral granularity, reducing visibility loss by 15% and capturing more transitions with higher accuracy and continuity. We validate kabr-tools through three case studies, analyzing 969 behavioral sequences, surpassing the capacity of traditional methods for data capture and annotation. We found that, like Plains zebras, vigilance in Grevy's zebras decreases with herd size, but, unlike Plains zebras, habitat has a negligible impact. Plains and Grevy's zebras exhibit strong behavioral inertia, with rare transitions to alert behaviors and observed spatial segregation between Grevy's zebras, Plains zebras, and giraffes in mixed-species herds. By enabling automated behavioral monitoring at scale, kabr-tools offers a powerful tool for ecosystem-wide studies, advancing conservation, biodiversity research, and ecological monitoring.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_02030
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle kabr-tools: Automated Framework for Multi-Species Behavioral Monitoring
Kline, Jenna
Kholiavchenko, Maksim
Stevens, Samuel
van Tiel, Nina
Zhong, Alison
Banerji, Namrata
Sheets, Alec
Balasubramaniam, Sowbaranika
Duporge, Isla
Thompson, Matthew
Campolongo, Elizabeth
Miliko, Jackson
Rosser, Neil
Berger-Wolf, Tanya
Stewart, Charles V.
Rubenstein, Daniel I.
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
A comprehensive understanding of animal behavior ecology depends on scalable approaches to quantify and interpret complex, multidimensional behavioral patterns. Traditional field observations are often limited in scope, time-consuming, and labor-intensive, hindering the assessment of behavioral responses across landscapes. To address this, we present kabr-tools (Kenyan Animal Behavior Recognition Tools), an open-source package for automated multi-species behavioral monitoring. This framework integrates drone-based video with machine learning systems to extract behavioral, social, and spatial metrics from wildlife footage. Our pipeline leverages object detection, tracking, and behavioral classification systems to generate key metrics, including time budgets, behavioral transitions, social interactions, habitat associations, and group composition dynamics. Compared to ground-based methods, drone-based observations significantly improved behavioral granularity, reducing visibility loss by 15% and capturing more transitions with higher accuracy and continuity. We validate kabr-tools through three case studies, analyzing 969 behavioral sequences, surpassing the capacity of traditional methods for data capture and annotation. We found that, like Plains zebras, vigilance in Grevy's zebras decreases with herd size, but, unlike Plains zebras, habitat has a negligible impact. Plains and Grevy's zebras exhibit strong behavioral inertia, with rare transitions to alert behaviors and observed spatial segregation between Grevy's zebras, Plains zebras, and giraffes in mixed-species herds. By enabling automated behavioral monitoring at scale, kabr-tools offers a powerful tool for ecosystem-wide studies, advancing conservation, biodiversity research, and ecological monitoring.
title kabr-tools: Automated Framework for Multi-Species Behavioral Monitoring
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.02030