On the accuracy in birds' paths reconstruction using movement direction recorders : some results from a computer based simulation

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the use of movement direction recorders (MDR) to reconstruct the paths of free ranging animals, particularly of birds ( Bramanti, Dall'Antonia & Papi, 1988; Wilson &Wilson, 1988; Wilson R. P., Wilson, M.-P.,Link, Mempel & Adams, 1991 ). MDR is a device able to measure and store the direction of animal's attitude with respect to an external fixed reference, for example, with respect to the local earth magnetic field. The direction measures are done with a sampling period whose value depends on many factors such as the whole time of path, the recorder memory capacity and the spatial resolution required in path reconstruction.