Data are summarized based on the report type, the type of data (all occurrence, interval, and space use), and the type of animal (individual or group). Let’s break down each scenario to see how data are analyzed.
Heat Map reports are created from the space use coordinate data (interval or all occurrence sampling of individuals or groups). Heat Maps, often called kernel density estimation plots, are made by estimating a probability function around each coordinate – a 3-dimensional space with peaks (high probability locations) and troughs (low probability locations) indicated through a color gradient. In ZooMonitor, these colors are relative based on the amount of data plotted and do not represent specific space usage levels. The current heat map tool in ZooMonitor can handle up to 40k data points.
Behavior Budget reports display the percent of time engaged in behaviors. For interval data on a focal individual, this is calculated by dividing the number of intervals engaged in a behavior by the total number of intervals scored, then multiplied by 100 to convert to percent (note that intervals with missing data are not included and the percentage for an individual in a session should always add to 100%). For interval data on groups, the percent of individuals performing a behavior at each interval are first calculated using the total animals recorded on that interval (e.g., 8 animals inactive and 1 animal not visible for a given interval would yield values of 89% and 11% of the group is inactive and not visible at that interval, respectively). Then, the values per interval are averaged to calculate a mean group score for each behavior during the session. Percentages are calculated for each animal (individual or group) per session and averaged across sessions for the behavior budget.
Continuous data of time durations are also analyzed as a percent of time, similar to interval data. The duration of a behavior during a session is summarized and divided by the total duration of recorded data for that channel (i.e., all behaviors combined). Again, this percentage calculation adjusts for small discrepancies in your recording time but will not correctly handle your data if you only record one continuous behavior (e.g., creating a channel to record one behavior of interest). To utilize the built-in reports for that type of data, you will need to include a second behavior to score when the behavior of interest is not occurring. For example, if you were interested in just scoring the duration of pacing behavior, you should also include a second behavior to score when the animal isn’t pacing which will allow the total recorded duration to be similar to your overall observation length.
The Target Behavior report can display interval and continuous percent of time data, as described above, but can also display rates for all occurrence data. For all occurrence data on individuals or groups, these rates are calculated as the total number of occurrences during a session, divided by the length of the session (i.e., occurrences per minute). Session length is calculated by subtracting the session’s end time from the start time (expressed in minutes).
For interval and continuous data being visualized using the Behavior Budget or Target Behavior report, you can also choose to express the values as a percent of visible time. To do this, you will first need to ensure that your not visible behaviors in your project have the "Not Visible Behavior" box checked (this box is located on the Edit/Create Behavior pop-up window below the Behavior Name field).
In your reports, you’ll see a session count that represents how many observations were included based on your report criteria. This session count is is the total number of sessions with data of a given channel type (i.e., all occurrence, interval, continuous) – it is not a session count for each channel. So if you have multiple channels of the same type, the session count will represent the combined number of sessions for that channel type (all occurrence, interval, or continuous).
