Consequently, the distribution is expected to flatten with the duration of the study. Hereafter, we will refer selleck chemical to this distribution, or method of collecting data, as ‘clock time distribution’, or ‘clock time method’. However, the behaviour

time could be recorded according to sun time, with X = t − HSrise. Then, the distribution of the behaviour as a function of sun time after an N-day period still follows a normal distribution centred on 0 with variance σ2. This distribution of the behaviour reflects the fact that each day the behavioural distribution is the same if the comparison time (referential) is the sunrise. Hereafter, we will refer to this distribution, or method of collecting data, as ‘sun time distribution’, or ‘sun time method’. It is clear at this stage that the distribution φ1 contains information about the timing of behaviour, while the distribution φ2 also contains information about the change in sunrise time. We thus attempt to estimate the loss of information by quantifying the noise introduced by using φ2 rather than φ1. To compare the ‘sun time distribution’ and the ‘clock time distribution’, NVP-LDE225 ic50 we compute the ratio of maximum probability density for the two distributions. We will refer to it as the noise, or amount of

information lost, ɛ: (3) We illustrate this point using African wild dog data from Hwange (18-30S, 26-00E) over a 5-year time frame. Data were collected for all species throughout the year, with time of capture being recorded. Clock time obtained in the field was equated to the time of the appropriate solar event for the correct day, this website latitude and longitude using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) almanac (seehttp://aa.usno.navy.mil/). The behaviour we test is capture of major prey items in evenings: kudus (Tragelaphus sp.), duikers (Cephalophus sp.) and impalas (Aepyceros melampus). We test the behaviour time windows relative to sunset

time as well as to clock time to see if the subsequent interpretations differ. We analyzed 100 papers (Appendix S2) related to behaviour and diel activity patterns. Those papers were found by searching for key words (i.e. ‘diel activity’, ‘timing’ and ‘behaviour’) on the ‘web of knowledge’ search engine. They presented different ways of recording the time of the day, which led us to a classification of five different classes: (1) studies in laboratory environments with controlled ‘Light and Dark’ cycle (25 studies); (2) field studies using light intensity, time deviation from sunrise or sunset or sun angle rather than ‘clock time’ (25 studies); (3) field studies analyzing the time of behaviour using a monthly (or bimonthly) average of ‘clock time’ (13 studies); (4) field studies using a seasonal average of ‘clock time’ (9 studies); (5) field studies using ‘clock time’ (28 studies). Using chi-square tests, we investigated the potential effect of study location and duration on the choice of methodology.