Biologging has proven to be a powerful approach to investigate diverse questions related to movement ecology across a range of spatiotemporal scales and increasingly relies on multidisciplinary expertise. However, the variety of animal-borne equipment, coupled with little consensus regarding analytical approaches to interpret large, complex data sets presents challenges and makes comparison between studies and study species difficult. Here, we present a combined hardware and analytical approach for standardizing the collection, analysis, and interpretation of multisensor biologging data. Here, we present (i) a custom-designed integrated multisensor collar (IMSC), which was field tested on 71 free-ranging wild boar (Sus scrofa) over 2 years; (ii) a machine learning behavioral classifier capable of identifying six behaviors in free-roaming boar, validated across individuals equipped with differing collar designs; and (iii) laboratory and field-based calibration and accuracy assessments of animal magnetic heading measurements derived from raw magnetometer data. The IMSC capacity and durability exceeded expectations, with a 94% collar recovery rate and a 75% cumulative data recording success rate, with a maximum logging duration of 421 days. The behavioral classifier had an overall accuracy of 85% in identifying the six behavioral classes when tested on multiple collar designs and improved to 90% when tested on data exclusively from the IMSC. Both laboratory and field tests of magnetic compass headings were in precise agreement with expectations, with overall median magnetic headings deviating from ground truth observations by 1.7° and 0°, respectively. Although multisensor equipment and sophisticated analyses are now commonplace in biologging studies, the IMSC hardware and analytical framework presented here provide a valuable tool for biologging researchers and will facilitate standardization of biologging data across studies. In addition, we highlight the potential of additional analyses available using this framework that can be adapted for use in future studies on terrestrial mammals.

Department of Biology Barry University Miami Shores Florida USA

Department of Game Management and Wildlife Biology Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Czech Republic

Department of General Zoology Faculty of Biology University of Duisburg Essen Essen Germany

Department of Music Education Folkwang University of the Arts Essen Germany

Department of Psychology University of Miami Coral Gables Florida USA

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department United States Naval Academy Annapolis Maryland USA

Genomics and Computational Biology Graduate Group Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA

Institute of Zoology University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna Austria

Research Group Neurobiology of Magnetoreception Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior caesar Bonn Germany

Swansea Lab for Animal Movement Biosciences College of Science Swansea University Swansea UK

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