Project Profile

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The Zoo Diaries: Accelerometer and magnetometers dataloggers supplement animal welfare monitoring for zoo bears

Researchers: Jane Dentinger, Garrett Street

Location: Oklahoma City Zoo, OK

Project Narrative

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Zoos are vital to education, outreach and conservation as they are often the only opportunity for many to learn about and experience wild animals. However, increasing awareness and concern about the welfare of animals held in captivity has brought increasing scrutiny. Several animal welfare assessments for systematic monitoring of captive animals have been proposed but most rely on the expertise of keepers to spot subtle changes in behavior and continuously monitor all animals in their care. This places a heavy burden, and many report that they cannot simultaneously monitor all animals in their care to the extent required for thorough welfare assessments. I propose that new technologies can augment the observation process by allowing for continuous 24-hour monitoring using animal-borne biologging devices that record sub-second acceleration (movement) and magnetic orientation (position). Such devices record data signals that are characteristic to the behaviors that produced them. Thus, once a behavioral model is created from trained data, behavior can be identified without the need for continued direct observation. From this, we can create a typical behavioral time budget per animal and use this to monitor for deviations from their typical baseline. This also allows us to examine how animal behavior patterns may be different at night or how they change in response to factors such as temperature, visitor abundance or enrichment.

Partners: Rebecca Snyder, Oklahoma City Zoo
Heather Guillory, Oklahoma City Zoo

Project Photos

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