Piecewise continuous sampling: a method for minimizing bias and sampling effort for estimated metrics of animal behavior

Capturing qualitative features of animal behavior requires recording occurrences of behavior over time. Continuous sampling is best for capturing brief behaviors, but can be very time consuming. Instantaneous sampling can reduce the amount of labor required, but can miss short-duration behaviors. We therefore synthesized these techniques by continuously sampling during randomly scattered time intervals; a technique we call piecewise continuous sampling. To optimize and test the efficacy of this technique, we collected a continuous behavioral dataset of harvester ant workers, and then we developed a protocol to estimate the amount of sampling time necessary to reconstruct the proportion of time animals spend in different behavioral states. This protocol finds the sample size needed for the variance of the sample to converge on the variation of the population. We then divided this estimated time into equal-duration intervals that were randomly distributed across the entire continuous data..., In order to create a continuously-sampled dataset to compare sampling methods against, we manually coded the behavior of nine Pogonomyrmex californicus ants continuously over a three-hour timespan. Six were from a small colony (~30 workers, 2 queens) and three were from a larger one (~110 workers, 2 queens), though both colonies were still considered small as colonies in this species typically reach a size of 2,000–4,500 workers in the field (Johnson 2000). The nest was partitioned into a foraging arena and a brood chamber with a total surface area of 242 cm2. The workers that were followed were selected based on the task they were doing at the beginning of the video, so as to capture a range of repertoires; brood care (interacting with brood), food processing (interacting with seeds or artificial diet), or resting (immobile). Two from the small colony, and one from the larger, were selected for each task group. Switches between activities were manually coded using the program Cowlog (V..., , # Piecewise continuous sampling: a method for minimizing bias and sampling effort for estimated metrics of animal behavior

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.p8cz8w9z5](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.p8cz8w9z5)

This archive contains all of the code and data used for the manuscript titled, \"Piecewise continuous sampling: a method for minimizing bias and sampling effort for estimated metrics of animal behavior\". The goal of this manuscript is to establish piecewise continuous sampling as a flexible method for capturing animal behavior and to give suggestions as to how ethologists can optimally sample their data. This work is based on the observation of ant behavior, but should have applications for other animals as well.

## Description of the data and file structure

The file rawDataTask.csv contains second-by-second measures of the tasks 9 *Pogonomyrmex californicus* ants were performing over 11,041 seconds. This data is uses for nearly all analyses used in this manuscript, everything from...