A Systematic Review of the Use of Technology to Monitor Welfare in Zoo Animals: Is There Space for Improvement?
A top priority of modern zoos is to ensure good animal welfare (AW), thus, efforts towards improving AW monitoring are increasing. Welfare assessments are performed through more traditional approaches by employing direct observations and time-consuming data collection that require trained specialist...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-10-01
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| Series: | Animals |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/11/3048 |
| _version_ | 1827600528391012352 |
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| author | Alessia Diana Marina Salas Zjef Pereboom Michael Mendl Tomas Norton |
| author_facet | Alessia Diana Marina Salas Zjef Pereboom Michael Mendl Tomas Norton |
| author_sort | Alessia Diana |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A top priority of modern zoos is to ensure good animal welfare (AW), thus, efforts towards improving AW monitoring are increasing. Welfare assessments are performed through more traditional approaches by employing direct observations and time-consuming data collection that require trained specialists. These limitations may be overcome through automated monitoring using wearable or remotely placed sensors. However, in this fast-developing field, the level of automated AW monitoring used in zoos is unclear. Hence, the aim of this systematic literature review was to investigate research conducted on the use of technology for AW assessment in zoos with a focus on real-time automated monitoring systems. The search led to 19 publications with 18 of them published in the last six years. Studies focused on mammals (89.5%) with elephant as the most studied species followed by primates. The most used technologies were camera (52.6%) and wearable sensors (31.6%) mainly used to measure behaviour, while the use of algorithms was reported in two publications only. This research area is still young in zoos and mainly focused on large mammals. Despite an increase in publications employing automated AW monitoring in the last years, the potential for this to become an extra useful tool needs further research. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T04:37:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e0237bcf75ee424ea17ebc2b175f3027 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-2615 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T04:37:27Z |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Animals |
| spelling | doaj.art-e0237bcf75ee424ea17ebc2b175f30272023-12-03T13:26:51ZengMDPI AGAnimals2076-26152021-10-011111304810.3390/ani11113048A Systematic Review of the Use of Technology to Monitor Welfare in Zoo Animals: Is There Space for Improvement?Alessia Diana0Marina Salas1Zjef Pereboom2Michael Mendl3Tomas Norton4Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, Viale dell’Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, ItalyZoo Antwerp Centre for Research and Conservation (CRC), Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp (RZSA), 2018 Antwerp, BelgiumZoo Antwerp Centre for Research and Conservation (CRC), Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp (RZSA), 2018 Antwerp, BelgiumCentre for Behavioural Biology, School of Veterinary Science, University of Bristol, Langford House, Bristol BS40 5DU, UKMeasure, Model and Manage Bioresponses (M3 BIORES), Division Animal and Human Health Engineering, Department of Biosystems, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, B-3001 Leuven, BelgiumA top priority of modern zoos is to ensure good animal welfare (AW), thus, efforts towards improving AW monitoring are increasing. Welfare assessments are performed through more traditional approaches by employing direct observations and time-consuming data collection that require trained specialists. These limitations may be overcome through automated monitoring using wearable or remotely placed sensors. However, in this fast-developing field, the level of automated AW monitoring used in zoos is unclear. Hence, the aim of this systematic literature review was to investigate research conducted on the use of technology for AW assessment in zoos with a focus on real-time automated monitoring systems. The search led to 19 publications with 18 of them published in the last six years. Studies focused on mammals (89.5%) with elephant as the most studied species followed by primates. The most used technologies were camera (52.6%) and wearable sensors (31.6%) mainly used to measure behaviour, while the use of algorithms was reported in two publications only. This research area is still young in zoos and mainly focused on large mammals. Despite an increase in publications employing automated AW monitoring in the last years, the potential for this to become an extra useful tool needs further research.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/11/3048aquariaautomated monitoringbehaviourcamerawildlifezoological park |
| spellingShingle | Alessia Diana Marina Salas Zjef Pereboom Michael Mendl Tomas Norton A Systematic Review of the Use of Technology to Monitor Welfare in Zoo Animals: Is There Space for Improvement? Animals aquaria automated monitoring behaviour camera wildlife zoological park |
| title | A Systematic Review of the Use of Technology to Monitor Welfare in Zoo Animals: Is There Space for Improvement? |
| title_full | A Systematic Review of the Use of Technology to Monitor Welfare in Zoo Animals: Is There Space for Improvement? |
| title_fullStr | A Systematic Review of the Use of Technology to Monitor Welfare in Zoo Animals: Is There Space for Improvement? |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Systematic Review of the Use of Technology to Monitor Welfare in Zoo Animals: Is There Space for Improvement? |
| title_short | A Systematic Review of the Use of Technology to Monitor Welfare in Zoo Animals: Is There Space for Improvement? |
| title_sort | systematic review of the use of technology to monitor welfare in zoo animals is there space for improvement |
| topic | aquaria automated monitoring behaviour camera wildlife zoological park |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/11/3048 |
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