Multi-sensor biologgers and innovative training allow data collection with high conservation and welfare value in zoos

Zoos are valuable resources for research, providing scientists with access to rare and elusive species in an easy to observe environment. Animal-attached loggers (aka biologgers) offer profound insight into animal behaviour. Their use in zoos has high yet largely untapped potential to collect data relevant for wild animal research and conservation but also welfare and enrichment monitoring of the zoo animals themselves. However, affixing biologgers to study animals can be problematic in captive settings, limiting the accessibility of this technology for use on zoo species which ordinarily need to be sedated for the fitting of such devices, including large carnivores. Here we show that biologging collars and crate-training allow collection of novel datasets on captive animals with high welfare and conservation value, using endangered African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) tagged with tri-axial accelerometer and tri-axial magnetometer loggers, as a case study. Two yearling female wild dogs were fitted with biologging collars while sedated in preparation for translocation from London to Whipsnade Zoo, with data collected for 10–26 hours until collar detachment. Two adult male wild dogs at London Zoo were trained to accept collars in a modified crate in exchange for a food reward, which allowed fitting and detaching the collars without sedation, with data collected for 28 days. First, we show how accelerometer and magnetometer data allow detection of fine-scale individual differences in the recovery from sedation as well as within- and between-individual variation in activity patterns in relation to the type of food received (tong vs. rabbit and pony carcass). Using the vectorial dynamic body acceleration metric (VeDBA), a proxy for movement-related energy expenditure, further shows that daily energy expenditure was higher on days with partial pony carcass feeds compared to rabbit feeds but varied considerably between days where flesh pieces were fed with tongs. Using the dead-reckoning method allowed reconstruction of fine-scale (1 Hz locations) movement paths within enclosures, indoors and outdoors, allowing visualisation and quantification of fine-scale movement and space use differences between individuals and over time, for example in response to different enrichment methods. Using multi-sensor biologgers, combined with training captive animals to accept collars without the use of anaesthetic, can enable flexible, experimental approaches to data collection with minimal impact on study animals, providing novel understanding of relevance for both zoo and wild animals.