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Activity Budget

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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

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Synonyms

Time budget

Definition

A tool used to quantify what an animal does during the period of observation.

Introduction

An important component of studying animal behavior is to establish an activity budget for the species of interest. An activity (or time) budget quantifies what an animal does during the period of observation. It is typically constructed either by recording the duration of an animal’s various behaviors for a set amount of time or by sampling at regular intervals what an animal or a group of animals is doing over a longer period of time. The method chosen is determined by the question the researcher wants to answer and the type of behaviors that are to be observed. Comparison of activity budgets within a species can reveal the effects of many different factors including age, sex, seasonal effects, and anthropogenic disturbances. Activity budgets can also be compared between captive and wild animals to help determine how behavior is affected by captivity. Changes in...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    Ruth M. Colwill

  2. Canisius College, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Malini Suchak

Authors
  1. Ruth M. Colwill
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  2. Malini Suchak
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ruth M. Colwill .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University Department of Psychology, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd Shackelford

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Colwill, R.M., Suchak, M. (2021). Activity Budget. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1052-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1052-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

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