How to complete focal and scan studies

Once you have created your ethograms to list all the behaviours you are likely to observe in your chosen species, it's time to gather your data!

Gentoo penguin swimming

How to Study an Individual

If you have chosen to follow one single individual for your study, you will need to complete a focal sample. At the start of your observation, start your stopwatch, write in the time column "0 seconds" or "0s" for short and then tick the box that describes what the animal is doing. When the behaviour changes, write down the time in the time column and tick what the beavhiour changed to. Repeat this process every time the beaviour of the individual you are following changes, until the end of your observation (after, 5, 10 or 15 minutes - whatever you decide!)

To record your data, download our example focal datasheet and change the column names to match the behaviours within the ethogram unique to your study species!

Download your focal datasheet

 

Group of gentoo penguins

How to Study an Entire Group

In contrast, a scan sample requires you to record the behaviour of all individuals that are visible, not just one. This can be better to get replication; the more we observe animals and the more individuals from a species our observations are taken from, the more our finding are likely to be a true reflection of the animals normal behaviour. But we can't record the exact time every single animal changes behaviour, so in scan sampling, every 30 seconds we record (from left to right) what every individual is doing on the 30 second mark. Often this involves tally marking in each column to show how many were playing, grooming, etc.. Then you wait, recording nothing, until 60 seconds and you repeat the scanning process. Carry this on until the full time of your observation is complete. (5, 10 or 15 minutes - whatever you decide!)

To record your data, download our example scan datasheet and change the column names to match the behaviours within the ethogram unique to your study species!

Download your scan datasheet

 

Gentoo penguin with bubbles

Why record the weather?

When doing research, scientists often take note of the weather, time, date, etc. to record these uncontrolable factors. Sometimes researchers discover patterns based on these factors, as these 'variables' often effect the behaviours observed. By taking this into account, researchers may change the way they interpret the results.

 

Gentoo penguins at Penguin Rock

Out of Sight, Other and Location?

Our example datasheets include these 3 additional columns. Unlike the rest, they do not refer directly to an ethogram definition of behaviour. However in behavioural research we must be prepared for the unexpected! Often an animal may go out of view of the webcam or else out of view of the public in the zoo. This can be frustrating for a researcher (particularly when doing a focal sample on the individual) but they must simply wait for the animal to return to view whilst recording them on the datasheet as 'out of sight'. Similar, if the animal does something unexpected (outwith the ethogram) this can be described in the other column. Finally, some studies require the researcher to record where in the enclosure the animal is (e.g. indoor or outdoor). For these studies, we have included a location column. Further additional columns may be added depending on the nature of the research taking place (e.g. number of visitors at the enclosure).

Last modified: Thursday, 22 October 2020, 12:01 PM