Houbara time budgets according to individual and season

Understanding the behaviours and time budgets of translocated animals post-release has the potential to improve rearing and release protocols, and therefore survival rate. Otididae (bustards) inhabit open landscapes across the Middle East and Asia, are highly mobile on the ground and have similar lifestyles and body plans. The Asian Houbara (Chlamydotis macqueenii) is a bustard of conservation concern inhabiting the middle East to Central Asia and is frequently reared in captivity for population management. We deployed tri-axial accelerometers on 20 captive Asian Houbaras in two seasons to catalogue basic behaviours, provide a template applicable to other bustard species and examine seasonal differences in behaviour. We created Boolean algorithms to define the following behaviours using raw acceleration data and derived metrics: stationary, locomotion and eating/drinking. We used video recordings to cross-validate the algorithms, yielding recalls from 95% to 97%, and precisions between ..., Tri-axial accelerometers were deployed on captive Asian Houbaras (n = 20 birds) in two seasons at high temporal resolution. Boolean algorithms were created to define the following behaviours using raw acceleration data and derived metrics: stationary, locomotion and eating/drinking. Time budgets were calculated for each individual and season., , # Title of dataset: Houbara time budgets according to individual and season

**Name of datafile: Houbara_time_budget_data.csv**

Authors involved with sample collection, processing and/or analysis: Kareemah Chopra, Rory P. Wilson, Emily L.C Shepard, Enrico Sorato, Yves Hingrat.

Contact Author: Kareemah Chopra
ORCID ID: 0009-0003-1427-3384
Institution: University of Essex
Address: Wivenhoe Park,
Colchester, Essex
CO4 3SQ,
UK
Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

Data of data collection: March 2019 (six days) and June 2019 (six days).
Geographic location of data collection: National Avian Research Centre (NARC), Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Funding: Equipment and travel costs were provided by the International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC).

SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION
Title of publication that uses the data: A tri-axial acceleration-based behaviour template for bustards: the case of the Asian houbara.

METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION
Accelerometry data: Tri-axial accelerometers...