High-resolution ethograms, accelerometer recordings, and behavioral time series of Japanese quail within their social environment

On day 1, each pair of females (housed together) and the corresponding experimental male were assigned to an experimental group depending on whether they remained without wearing any accelerometers (Control) or accelerometers were placed using one of two attachment systems for a TechnoSmArt@ accelerometer (9.5x15x4mm 0.7 g): BACKPACK: a plastic platform with two elastic bands on their sides that are passed arround the base of the animal's wings was used to hold the accelerometer on the dorsum above the scapula area. PATCH:the accelerometer was attached to a self-adhesive fabric patch (“Athletic Tape”), subsequently surgical glue was used to adhere the device to the synsacrum area of the animal's dorsum, which was previously plucked manually. TESTS: Immediate response: After handling and/or attaching accelerometers, females were returned to their home box and their behaviour was videotaped. Response after a 24h habituation period: Cameras were activated remotely and female behavior was recorded, 24 h after handling and/or attaching devices. To facilitate data collection the ANY-maze™ Video Tracking System was used to analyze video-recordings, thus some files are directly provided as ANYmaze video files (.szv), which can only be opened using their program which can be download (free of charge) at https://www.any-maze.com Male-females interaction test: On the 8th day of experimentation a male of the same treatment group was assigned to a home-box. Before being introduced into the home-box a protocol to synchronise the video with the accelerometer signal was performed. With the accelerometer and the video recorder turned on, each male was gently handled to favour a position in which the male stayed still for 1 minute. After this, a series of up and down movements were performed, followed by another minute of stillness. After this synchronization protocol, the male was released and remained in the home-box during a 1h period. Novel object test: On day 9 of the experiment, a plastic blue 5 cm diameter ball was placed in the centre of each home box, and the behavior was recorded for the next 10 min . At the end of this period, the object was removed from the box. For the analysis of this test with ANY-maze™ Video Tracking System, thus some files are directly provided as ANYmaze video files (.szv), which can only be opened using their program which can be download (free of charge) at https://www.any-maze.com