Tracking the Flight: Exploring a Computational Framework for Analyzing Escape Responses in Plains Zebra (Equus quagga)

Abstract: Ethological research increasingly benefits from the growing affordability and accessibility of drones, which enable the capture of high-resolution footage of animal movement at fine spatial and temporal scales. However, analyzing such footage presents the technical challenge of separating animal movement from drone motion. While non-trivial, computer vision techniques such as image registration and Structure-from-Motion (SfM) offer practical solutions. For conservationists, open-source tools that are user-friendly, require minimal setup, and deliver timely results are especially valuable for efficient data interpretation. This study evaluates three approaches: a bioimaging-based registration technique, an SfM pipeline, and a hybrid interpolation method. We apply these to a recorded escape event involving 44 plains zebras, captured in a single drone video. Using the best-performing method, we extract individual trajectories and identify key behavioral patterns: increased alignment (polarization) during escape, a brief widening of spacing just before stopping, and tighter coordination near the group's center. These insights highlight the method's effectiveness and its potential to scale to larger datasets, contributing to broader investigations of collective animal behavior.