High resolution zone location time series in Japanese quail in a home-cage environment over a 6.5 day period (ALL SERIES)

Abstract

Each data point represents the zone of the box the animal was positioned in (see description bellow) recorded at 0.5s time interval, over a 6.5 day period.The total number of data points is approximately 1.070.000. In this experiment in a whole, the locomotor activity of 24 adult females quail (100-140 days old) was evaluated in a home-cage environment in a white wooden box measuring 40 x 40 x 40 cm (width x length x height, respectively) with a wire mesh floor. A metal bar wall divided the box in two same-size compartments (feeding, nesting), and a 7.5 x 7.5 cm opening served as a door allowing the bird to move freely between compartments. In the feeding compartment, a feeder and an automatic nipple drinker (with drainage) were positioned, while in the nesting compartment, a small white rubber nest measuring 15 x 15 cm was placed. Each of these two compartments were then imaginarily divided into two zones, resulting in a total of 4 zones of equal dimensions for data analysis. Zone 1: Feeding compartment with automatic nipple drinker and feeder. Zone 2: Feeding compartment from which the bird has access to the door that connects both compartments. Zone 3: Nesting compartment where a 15 x 15 cm small rubber nest was placed. Zone 4: Nesting compartment from which the bird has access to the door that connects both compartments. A video camera that automatically switched to infrared recording after lights were turned off was suspended 1.5m above the box. It was connected to a computer in an adjacent room and could be accessed remotely by experimenters. Testing began at approximately 1:00 PM, when 12 quail were placed in a box, and transported to a nearby experimental room. Each bird was then placed individually in the feeding zone of one of the boxes. During the following 6.5 days, the birds’ locomotor activity was continuously recorded. Testing ended at 9 PM the 7th day. Daily maintenance activities (egg collection, cleaning and feeding) were performed between 12 and 12:30 PM; the activity during this period was not included in time series, which in total implied a loss of 2% from the data set. Since only 12 birds could be tested simultaneously, two consecutive groups of 12 individuals were evaluated (group 1 and group 2). We used the commercially available ANY-MAZE@ computer program to register the center of the animals coordinates (x,y) and located the zone the animal was positioned in at 0.5 s intervals.