{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,30]],"date-time":"2026-04-30T02:53:56Z","timestamp":1777517636190,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":58,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"20","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,13]],"date-time":"2021-10-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1634083200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Monitoring activity patterns of animals offers the opportunity to assess individual health and welfare in support of precision livestock farming. The purpose of this study was to use a triaxial accelerometer sensor to determine the diel activity of sheep on pasture. Six Perendale ewe lambs, each fitted with a neck collar mounting a triaxial accelerometer, were filmed during targeted periods of sheep activities: grazing, lying, walking, and standing. The corresponding acceleration data were fitted using a Random Forest algorithm to classify activity (=classifier). This classifier was then applied to accelerometer data from an additional 10 ewe lambs to determine their activity budgets. Each of these was fitted with a neck collar mounting an accelerometer as well as two additional accelerometers placed on a head halter and a body harness over the shoulders of the animal. These were monitored continuously for three days. A classification accuracy of 89.6% was achieved for the grazing, walking and resting activities (i.e., a new class combining lying and standing activity). Triaxial accelerometer data showed that sheep spent 64% (95% CI 55% to 74%) of daylight time grazing, with grazing at night reduced to 14% (95% CI 8% to 20%). Similar activity budgets were achieved from the halter mounted sensors, but not those on a body harness. These results are consistent with previous studies directly observing daily activity of pasture-based sheep and can be applied in a variety of contexts to investigate animal health and welfare metrics e.g., to better understand the impact that young sheep can suffer when carrying even modest burdens of parasitic nematodes.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s21206816","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,13]],"date-time":"2021-10-13T21:48:39Z","timestamp":1634161719000},"page":"6816","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":32,"title":["What Are Sheep Doing? Tri-Axial Accelerometer Sensor Data Identify the Diel Activity Pattern of Ewe Lambs on Pasture"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9869-368X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Seer J.","family":"Ikurior","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Veterinary Science, Massey University, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand"},{"name":"College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agriculture, Makurdi 970231, Nigeria"}]},{"given":"Nelly","family":"Marquetoux","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"EpiCentre, School of Veterinary Science, Massey University, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2547-5056","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Stephan T.","family":"Leu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, University of Adelaide, Roseworthy 5371, Australia"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7398-2653","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rene A.","family":"Corner-Thomas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Veterinary Science, Massey University, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand"},{"name":"School of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2095-4392","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ian","family":"Scott","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Veterinary Science, Massey University, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand"}]},{"given":"William E.","family":"Pomroy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Veterinary Science, Massey University, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"47","DOI":"10.3354\/esr00084","article-title":"Identification of animal movement patterns using tri-axial accelerometry","volume":"10","author":"Shepard","year":"2008","journal-title":"Endanger. 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