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Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open
Journal article
Using thermal imaging to monitor body temperature of koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) in a zoo setting
Animals, Vol.9(12), pp.1-6
06/12/2019
PMCID: PMC6940814
PMID: 31817758
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Abstract
Non-invasive techniques can be applied for monitoring the physiology and behaviour of wildlife in Zoos to improve management and welfare. Thermal imaging technology has been used as a non-invasive technique to measure the body temperature of various domesticated and wildlife species. In this study, we evaluated the application of thermal imaging to measure the body temperature of koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) in a Zoo environment. The aim of the study was to determine the body feature most suitable for recording a koala’s body temperature (using coefficient of variation scores). We used a FLIR530TM IR thermal imaging camera to take images of each individual koala across three days in autumn 2018 at the Wildlife Sydney Zoo, Australia. Our results demonstrated that koalas had more than one reliable body feature for recording body temperature using the thermal imaging tool—the most reliable features were eyes and abdomen. This study provides first reported application of thermal imaging on an Australian native species in a Zoo and demonstrates its potential applicability as a humane/non-invasive technique for assessing the body temperature as an index of stress.
Details
- Title
- Using thermal imaging to monitor body temperature of koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) in a zoo setting
- Creators
- Edward Narayan - University of QueenslandAnnabella Perakis - Western Sydney UniversityWill Meikle - Australia Zoo
- Publication Details
- Animals, Vol.9(12), pp.1-6
- Publisher
- MDPI
- Number of pages
- 6
- Identifiers
- 991013269210902368
- Copyright
- © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article