Research data collection: the tools of the trade

Animal welfare scientists collect behavioral data to improve animal care, inform welfare decisions, and better understand the species in our care.  However, back in the day, watching animals used to mean balancing a clipboard in one hand, a stopwatch in the other, and a pencil clenched between your teeth—while trying not to lose track of who just did what. For years, behavioral data collection involved paper maps, hand-written ethograms, and hoping the rain didn’t ruin your data collection. These classic methods are still in use (especially in field settings) but zoo-based research has come a long way. 

At Zoo Atlanta, much of our behavioral data is now collected through ZooMonitor, a tablet-based app developed by Lincoln Park Zoo. While there are many behavioral monitoring applications available, this tool allows us to log behavior in real time, mark where animals are in their habitat, set up digital ethograms, and manage multiple studies on one device. With just a few taps, we can track our animals, quantify activity patterns, produce heatmaps, and export our data directly for analysis. It’s efficient, quicker to organize data, and much easier to read than field notes written in the rain. This updated form of data collection also means that we don’t need to digitalize our records; we now get an organized output for the data analysis process.  

Zoo researchers have it cushier than field researchers who work in a very different context. Tracking animals in the wild can involve long hikes, unpredictable weather, and no wi-fi. There’s often no access to digital tools, so observations are handwritten, and GPS units may be the only tech on hand.  

While today’s tools have made data collection more efficient, the next wave of innovation is already on the horizon. AI-powered behavior recognition and tracking is already starting to transform how we collect and interpret data. AI is able to help us detect subtle changes in posture or social interactions. AI is sometimes able to catch these things before the human eye can. While we’re not quite ready to hand our clipboards or tablets over to AI just yet, the next generation of technology may help us monitor animal welfare, and act more quickly as their needs change by identifying early signs of changes in behavior and alerting us in real time. However, even with all the advancements in the tools that we use to monitor behavior, some researchers still rely on binoculars for animals who prefer the far side of their habitat (especially during naptime) or keep a notebook with all the identifiable traits of our focal animals. 

While our tools are evolving, our goals remain consistent, and our questions largely remain the same: What is the animal doing? What do they feel and think? How does the environment influence it? And what can we learn to support better welfare? Whether we’re tapping on a tablet or scribbling in a notebook, it all starts with looking, listening, and learning—one behavior at a time. 

Alexz Allen
Research Associate