Promoter: Jamie MacLaren
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Subject: The range-of-motion of animal limb joints dictates (to a large extent) how it can move through its habitat. For animals which spend time both on land and in water (semi-aquatic), the kinematics of their limbs is especially important, as the limb joints need to be able to rotate to allow for terrestrial walking, running, or standing, while also being able to facilitate swimming (or bottom-walking). Understanding the kinematics of habitual locomotion (i.e. normal, unstressed movement) in animals can provide revealing insights into the nature of form and function, and be used to drive simulations of locomotion in extinct relatives in deep time.
One underutilised method for investigating kinematics of locomotion is wild animals is by the use of camera-traps. Although mostly recorded at lower frames-per-second (fps), camera-trap data of large animals (including large mammals) offer an ideal opportunity to investigate habitual locomotion in elusive species. In this study, the kinematics of forelimb joints will be investigated based on a series of camera-trap videos from the rainforests of Costa Rica in order to investigate the locomotion of wild tapirs (Tapiridae).
In this project, the student will: (1) become familiar with the general biology of tapirs; (2) will be given training in video analysis and point-tracking; (3) perform 2D kinematic experiments in free software for a large sample of lateral videos of tapirs moving in front of camera-traps; (4) assess how the kinematics of locomotion varies across the individuals at different forelimb joints and at different speeds. (OPTIONAL) the student may be able to gather their own kinematic data from zoo visits and incorporate those into the study.