So far, zoo or wild animals have mostly had to be captured and anesthetized for medical examination. But in the future, computer-assisted camera technology could save them this stress. Because it enables veterinarians to determine at least the heartbeat and breathing rate of these animals remotely and without contact. In many cases, this is enough to determine whether an animal is healthy or sick, as the scientists report.
Whether in the wild, in a wildlife enclosure or in a zoo: It is usually difficult to determine how well a wildlife is doing by looking at it. Veterinarians need at least information about the animal’s breathing and pulse – if it is too fast or slow, this can already reveal an illness.
Pulse measurement by digital camera plus computer intelligence
The problem, however: So far, you have to capture or even anesthetize the animals to be able to measure their pulse. However, this is difficult, time-consuming and potentially dangerous for the people involved and stressful for the animal: “Capturing creates stress and maybe even long-term trauma for the animals and can also affect their physiological state,” explain Ali Al-Naji from the University of South Australia and his colleagues. For this reason, researchers have long been looking for suitable methods that can be used to measure basic parameters such as pulse and breathing from a distance. In fact, there are first attempts with microwave radar sensors, which are expensive and not suitable for all environments.
Al-Naji and his team therefore took a different approach: They used a normal high-resolution video camera as a starting point and supplemented it with a wine-based evaluation system. “By using special motion and signal processing techniques, we can extract the cardiopulmonary signal from the images without having to stunning the animals,” the researchers report. In initial tests, they tried their new system on nine different animal species at the Adelaide Zoo – from giant pandas, lions, Sumatran tigers and orangutans to alpacas, kangaroos and a penguin. All animals ran freely in the enclosure and were filmed from up to 40 meters away.
Promising results
The pilot study showed that for all animal species, the scientists were able to determine the pulse rate and respiratory rate using their system. The cardiopulmoral signals determined from the videos were in almost all cases within the normal range for the respective animal species. In the case of the lions, for example, the video system showed 54 heartbeats per minute and a breathing rate of 22 puffs per minute. The normal ranges of these parameters for lions are 42 to 76 heartbeats and 14 to 32 breaths, as Al-Naji and his colleagues report. “This means that our technology shows promising results,” says the researchers.
His colleague Javann Chahl adds: “With this experiment, we have shown that digital cameras can successfully extract cardiopulmonary signals from animals in a zoo environment,” said the scientist. “The technology requires refinement and more testing, but it shows that wildlife can be examined remotely for signs of disease.”
(Video: University of South Australia)
Source: University of South Australia; Technical article: Sensors, doi: 10.3390 / s19245445