Camera-based behavior monitoring and detection of acoustic signals on an individual animal basis

The welfare-friendly keeping of zoo and wild animals is currently of central importance in public discourse. The evaluation of stress and behavioral patterns on the basis of objectively collected measured values are indispensable here. The subject is the development of an automated monitoring system that combines transponder-based positioning with camera-based monitoring of behavioral patterns, contactless detection of vital parameters and the analysis of acoustic data. In this way, an individual animal-related monitoring in the entirety of an enclosure and the evaluation of the behavior on the basis of a specifically to be developed animal welfare score is possible even in animal groups. The analysis can be done in 2D and 3D, whereby the objects are analyzed and interpreted with the help of methods of artificial intelligence. By merging data over time, software-based strategies are generated that are appropriate to the species in order to compensate for stress through the targeted, time-defined use of elements of behavioral enrichment and to achieve the highest level of animal welfare.