Research overview: overall dynamic body acceleration as a proxy for energy expenditure

Overall dynamic body acceleration, or ODBA, sums the dynamic component of acceleration across three axes to provide a low-cost proxy for an animal's rate of energy use. This overview explains the rationale, that mechanical activity correlates with metabolic rate, and how ODBA and related metrics are calibrated against direct measures of oxygen consumption in captive trials. Applied to collared cats, ODBA-derived estimates let researchers map the energetic landscape of movement, hunting, and rest across real terrain. The overview discusses limitations, including the need for species-specific calibration and the fact that not all energy use produces motion. As a scalable index of effort, ODBA has become a central tool linking biologging signals to the physiological cost of felid behavior.